issue

issue · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰ
2. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰs
3. Proto-Italic*eks
4. Latinex
5. Latinex-
6. Latineō
7. Latinexeō
8. Old Frenchissir
9. Old Frenchissue
10. Middle Englishissue
11. English todayissue

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.

Issue · noun²

From Free (“not enslaved”) Issue (“progeny”), "an antiquated designation for descendants of enslaved people who were freed before the Civil War", later applied to Monacans because Virginia laws for a time required births to be registered as either "White" or "Colored", erasing Indians, and clerks later haphazardly classified Monacans (even from the same mother and father) as "Mixed Indian", "Negro", or "Issue".