From Greek πρᾶγμα "deed, act, matter, business" via Latin and French. (Oxford English Dictionary)
As many textbooks point out, pragmatics (in a sense which contrasts with semantics) was introduced in Morris (1937). Here is the passage:
Analysis reveals that linguistic signs sustain three types of relations (to other signs of the language, to objects that are signified, to persons by whom they are used and understood) which define three dimensions of meaning. These dimensions in turn are objects of investigation by syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics, semiotic being the general science which includes all of these and their interrelations. It turns out that formalism, empiricism, and pragmatism are simply emphases upon one or another of the three dimensions of meaning, that while neither is the whole story each is an important part, and that the three are complementary in the same way that theory, observation, and experimentation are integrated in the scientific method. (p. 4)
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