Other forms: issues, issued, issuing
An issue is what people are arguing about — the point still in dispute, the thing that has to be settled before anything else can move. Housing is the issue at the election. Parking is the issue that eats a whole residents' meeting.
It has also softened into a polite word for a fault: there is an issue with your booking, the car has an issue with the brakes. Say issue where problem would sound too blunt, which is why airlines and call centres reach for it all day long. The verb is a different job, and it is always official — an office issues passports, a court issues a warrant, a head teacher issues a warning. You cannot issue your friend a sandwich, because issuing takes an authority behind it. And a magazine's issue is just the copy that came out this month, so the March issue and the back issues in the library have nothing to do with arguments at all.
1nounissueA subject that people disagree about and keep arguing over.~27%
“Housing was the only issue anyone wanted to ask about.”
2nounproblemA fault or difficulty with something, put more gently than a problem.~5%
“There is an issue with your booking, so I will put you through to the desk.”
3verbgrantTo give something out officially.~22%
“The government will issue new passports to everyone next year.”
synonyms: grant, supply, distribute
4nouneditionOne edition of a magazine or newspaper.~40%
“The March issue sold out in a week.”
5nounsupplyAn official supply of something, or the batch handed out at one time.~4%
“Every recruit gets a standard issue of boots and a waterproof coat.”
6verbflowIn formal or older writing, to flow or pour out from an opening.~2%
“Smoke issued from a crack in the roof.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 22 sentences found in the wild and placed 22 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
issue is a matter under discussion.
Old French issue meant an exit, a way out — the feminine past participle of issir, to exit, from Latin exeō, to go out, which is ex- (out) plus eō (go). English law took the word for the point a lawsuit finally came out at: the one disputed fact still standing once the pleadings were done. From there it drifted to a point of contention between two parties in the 1400s, and to any important point to be decided by 1836. The plain old sense of coming out never left, and it is still there in smoke issuing from a chimney and in the new issue of a magazine.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁ey-
Middle English
issue
English, today
issue
Built from
From Middle English issue. From Middle English issue, from Old French issue (“an exit, a way out”), feminine past participle of issir (“to exit”), from Latin exeō (“go out, exit”), from prefix ex- (“out”) + eō (“go”). The legal meaning originated from the concept of "the end or result of pleadings in a suit (by presenting the point to be determined by trial)," leading to the sense of "the controversy over facts in a trial" (early 14th century, Anglo-French). This later extended to mean "a point of contention between two parties" (early 15th century) and more generally, "an important point to be decided" (1836). Consequently, the verbal phrase take issue with emerged in 1797 (preceded by join issue in the 1690s), meaning "to adopt an affirmative or negative stance in a dispute with another." The expression to have issues, meaning "to have unresolved conflicts," dates to 1990.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA