/əbˈdʒɛktɪv/
[adjective] Based on facts and not influenced by personal feelings or opinions. An objective person or decision is fair and considers only the real situation, not what someone wants to be true.
The word 'objective' originally described things thrown in front of the mind — ideas as objects placed before your gaze.
The story of 'objective' begins with a simple act of throwing. Its root is the Latin verb 'iacere', meaning 'to throw', combined with the prefix 'ob-', meaning 'against' or 'in front of'. Together they formed 'obiectare', meaning 'to throw before' or 'to place in front of', which gave rise to the noun 'obiectum' — something placed before you, something presented to the mind or the senses. This Latin root 'obiectum' passed into Medieval Latin and then into Old French as 'object', before arriving in English in the late 14th century as a noun meaning a physical thing or a target of thought.
The adjective form, 'objective', came later and travelled a more philosophical road. Medieval and Renaissance scholars used the Latin 'obiectivus' to describe things that existed as objects of perception — things presented to the mind rather than existing within it. In other words, something 'objective' was literally 'thrown out there in front of you', available to be seen or judged, as opposed to something 'subjective', which was locked inside the thinking self. This contrast between objective and subjective became one of the great organising ideas of Western philosophy.
The word entered English in its adjectival sense around the early 17th century, carried by philosophical writing and translations of Latin texts. At first it was a technical term used mainly by scholars debating perception, reality, and knowledge. The opposite term, 'subjective', comes from Latin 'subiectum', meaning 'that which lies beneath', from 'sub-' (under) + 'iacere' (to throw) — so 'subjective' was literally 'thrown under', belonging to the underlying self. Both words share the same throwing root, 'iacere', which also gives English words like 'project' (Latin 'proiectare', to throw forward), 'inject' (Latin 'iniectare', to throw in), and 'reject' (Latin 'reiectare', to throw back).
Over the 18th and 19th centuries, 'objective' gradually escaped the lecture hall and entered everyday language. As the age of science and empirical inquiry advanced, societies began placing enormous value on facts, evidence, and impartial reasoning. 'Objective' became the ideal — a gold standard of fairness and truth-seeking. Journalism adopted it, law courts relied on it, and science was built around it. By the 20th century, to call someone 'objective' was one of the highest professional compliments you could give.
Interestingly, the word also developed a separate life as a noun. In military language from the 18th century onwards, an 'objective' came to mean the target or goal of an operation — the thing you are aiming at, once again echoing that original Latin image of something placed out in front of you. This noun sense spread rapidly into business, education, and everyday life, so that today we freely speak of 'setting objectives' and 'meeting objectives', rarely realising that we are still, in a sense, talking about throwing something forward and aiming at it.