Other forms: published, publishing, publishes
To publish is to print or post something so the public can read it. Publish a book, published online, publish the findings.
The word now covers pressing a button as well as running a press, and in law publishing something is what makes a defamatory statement actionable — telling one other person counts. Publish or perish is the academic pressure to keep producing papers. Note that the Latin means to make public.
1verbpublishTo print or post something so the public can read it.
“The newspaper refused to publish the letter.”
publish is a making public.
Latin publicare means to make public, from publicus, public, from populus, the people. Public and people come from the same crowd.
Latin
publicare — to make public, show or tell to the people, make known, declare, also (and earlier) confiscate for public use
Old French
publier
Middle English
publicen
English, today
publish
Built from
From Middle English publicen (by analogy with banish, finish), from Old French publier, from Latin publicare (“to make public, show or tell to the people, make known, declare, also (and earlier) confiscate for public use”), from publicus (“pertaining to the people, public”); see public.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA