absorption

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin absorptiō (“a swallowing up, engulfing”),^[2][3][4][5] found in Augustine in the 4th or 5th century,^[2] from absorptus, the past participle of absorbeō (“to swallow up, devour”),^[2][3][5][6] the source of absorb.^[3][7] The Latin verb is formed from ab- (“off, away from”) and sorbeō (“to suck in”),^[3][2] from Proto-Indo-European *srebh- (“to suck, absorb”).^[3] Merriam-Webster also allows a borrowing through French absorption,^[8] which the OED records in French in a figurative sense from 1586 and in scientific use from the 18th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The swallowing up or engulfing of a material thing: 1597, in Bishop John King's Lectures upon Jonas.^[2][4][8] This sense is now obsolete; the OED's last record is from 1778.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that the word's senses closely follow those of absorb.^[2] From the literal "swallowing up" it passed to the state of being wholly taken up with something (1640) and to disappearance by incorporation into something else (1659),^[2] a sense Etymonline dates from 1714.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it only as "the act of swallowing up".^[9] The scientific senses followed: the taking in of substances, energy or light (1675), the taking up of substances by the body in medicine and physiology (1732), the damping of sound (1813), the storing of electrical energy by a dielectric (1865), the weakening of radiation passing through matter (1896, in a translation of Röntgen) and the loss of energy by radio waves (1899).^[2] Other figurative uses are the taking in of information (1810), the assimilation of immigrants (1874), and coping with difficulties without disruption (1878).^[2] In the sense used of Jewish immigrants in Israel, the English word follows a Modern Hebrew word meaning "mixing, merger".^[2]

Timeline

• 1597 – swallowing up, engulfing (obsolete after 1778).^[2][4][8]
• 1640 – being engrossed in something.^[2]
• 1659 – disappearance through incorporation into something else.^[2]
• 1675 – the physical or chemical taking in of substances, energy or light.^[2]
• 1732 – in medicine and physiology, the taking in of a substance by the tissues.^[2]
• 1813 – the reduction of sound by a material.^[2]
• 1874 – the assimilation of immigrants.^[2]
• 1896 – the weakening of radiation passing through matter.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The taking in of a liquid, gas, heat or light by a substance: the absorption of rainwater by the soil.^[10][8][2]
2. (physiology) The passage of digested food, a drug or another substance into the tissues through the gut wall, the skin or a mucous membrane.^[10][2]
3. (physics) The reduction in the intensity of radiation or sound as its energy is converted into another form, such as heat, in a medium.^[10][2]
4. The state of being wholly occupied with something; engrossment: his absorption in the crossword.^[2]
5. The incorporation of one thing into a larger one, so that it loses its separate identity: the absorption of the village into the city.^[8][2]
6. (obsolete, 1597–1778) A swallowing up or engulfing, as of land.^[8][2]

Word family

• absorptive
• absorptivity
• absorptance
• absorptiometer
• absorptiometry
• hyperabsorption
• interabsorption
• malabsorption

Related words

• adsorption
• sorption
• absorb
• absorbent

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins