- industrial (adj.)
- 1774, "resulting from labor," from French industriel, from Medieval Latin industrialis, from Latin industria "diligence, activity" (see industry). There is an isolated earlier used in the same sense from 1580s, from Latin industria.
The main modern meaning "pertaining to the manufacture of commodities, connected with the application of industry to manufactures" is from 1830, from a sense in French.
Meaning "suitable for industrial use" is from 1904. As a style of dance music, attested from 1988. Industrial revolution was in use by 1840 to refer to what were then recent developments and changes in England and elsewhere.
