avoidance

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English avoidaunce,^[2][3] formed from English avoid + -ance.^{[4][5][6][7][3]} The OED thinks that, to judge from its date, the noun probably also existed in Anglo-Norman,^[4] and the MED and Dictionary.com take it from Anglo-French;^[2][8] the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records avoidance from the first quarter of the 14th century, meaning an annulment and the vacancy of a benefice.^[9] The verb avoid is from Anglo-Norman avoider (“to clear out, withdraw”), which corresponds to Old French esvuidier (“to empty out”), formed from es- (“out”) and vuidier (“to be empty”), from vuide (“empty”), the source of void.^[4][5][7] Etymonline traces the French adjective to Latin vocivus (“unoccupied, vacant”), a derivative of vacō (“to be empty”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of emptying a vessel or its contents; removal, ejection, excretion: before 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[4] The MED quotes the same text for the emptying of the bowels or stomach,^[2] and Etymonline gives the sense "action of emptying" from the late 14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The early senses follow the old meanings of avoid, "to empty, clear out, withdraw".^[4][5] From 1462 the noun was used of an office or benefice falling vacant, and of the right to fill the vacancy;^[4][6] the MED has this sense from 1430,^[2] and Etymonline from the mid-15th century.^[5] Other senses that died out in the 17th century were withdrawal or departure (1563–1635), dismissal (1633–50) and an outlet (1602–12).^[4][6] The legal sense of making something void, an annulment, is recorded from 1628, in Coke,^[4][5] though it was already present in Anglo-Norman.^[9] The modern sense, the shunning of something unwelcome or holding aloof from someone, is dated 1610, in Donne, by the OED,^[4] but from the early 15th century by Etymonline;^[5] it follows the change of avoid itself to "shun".^[5] Johnson (1755) gave "the act of avoiding" first and "the course by which any thing is carried off" second.^[10] In anthropology avoidance has meant, since 1889, the custom by which some members of a family may not meet or speak to each other.^[4] Tax avoidance, the legal reduction of tax, is a later compound.^[6][3]

Timeline

• before 1398 – the emptying of a vessel; removal, excretion (obsolete by 1661).^[4]
• 1430 – a vacancy in an office or benefice.^[2]
• 1462 – the same sense in the OED, in the Paston Letters.^[4]
• 1563 – withdrawal, departure (obsolete by 1635).^[4]
• 1602 – an outlet (obsolete by 1612).^[4]
• 1610 – the shunning of something unwelcome.^[4]
• 1628 – annulment, especially in law.^[4][5]
• 1889 – the avoidance custom in anthropology.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of keeping away from something or someone, or of preventing something from happening: the avoidance of debt.^{[11][3][12][4]}
2. (law) The act of making something void; annulment.^{[11][3][12][4]}
3. (ecclesiastical law) The state of a benefice or office having no holder; a vacancy.^[11][3][4]
4. An anticipatory response made in order to avoid something.^[3]
5. (obsolete) The act of emptying or clearing something away.^[3][4]
6. (obsolete, 1602–1612) An outlet.^[3][4]

Word family

• nonavoidance
• zone of avoidance

Related words

• avoid
• void
• devoid
• evacuate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt