install

• enstall (rare, obsolete)
• instal (rare, UK, dated spelling)

From Middle English installen, from Old French installer, from Medieval Latin īnstallō (“to install, put in place, establish”), from in- + stallum (“stall”), from Frankish *stall (“stall, position, place”), from Proto-Germanic *stallaz (“place, position”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel-, *stAlǝn-, *stAlǝm- (“stem, trunk”). Cognate with Old High German stal (“location, stall”), Old English steall (“position, stall”), Old English onstellan (“to institute, create, originate, establish, give the example of”), Middle High German anstalt (“institute”), German anstellen (“to conduct, employ”), German einstellen (“to set, adjust, position”), Dutch aanstellen (“to appoint, commission, institute”), Dutch instellen (“to set up, establish”). More at in, stall.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈstɔːl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈstɔl/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈstɑl/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈstoːl/
• Hyphenation: in‧stall
• Rhymes: -ɔːl

install (third-person singular simple present installs, present participle installing, simple past and past participle installed)

1. (transitive) To connect, set up or prepare something for use
   • 2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30:

     Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."

   • 2021 July 14, Paul Stephen, “A portal into the future”, in RAIL, number 935, page 52. photo caption:

     Each TBM installs two-metre-wide rings made up of seven precast concrete segments produced on-site. Each ring takes approximately 45 minutes to one hour to install.

   1. (transitive, computing) To transfer software onto a device's permanent storage and put it in a state where it is ready to be run when needed, usually decompressing it if necessary and performing any necessary pre-first-run configuration.

      I haven't installed the new operating system yet because of all the bugs.

2. (transitive) To admit formally into an office, rank or position.

   He was installed as Chancellor of the University.

   • 1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 12:

     My husband rented a small, comfortable house, and I was installed as its mistress.

3. (transitive) To establish or settle in.

   I installed myself in my usual chair by the fire.

• uninstall

• installation
• installer
• instalment / installment

install (plural installs)

1. (computing, informal) An installation: the process of installing a software application.

   The install takes a long time, but you can run it in the background while working on other things.

2. (computing, informal) An installation: a software application that has been installed.

   I've customized my local install; the out-of-the-box version looks a bit different.

• Antills