cleanser

Etymology

It is formed from English cleanse + -er,^[1][2][3][4] an agent noun from the verb.^[4] Old English already had clǣnsere (“cleanser, purifier; priest”),^[5][6][4] from clǣnsian (“to cleanse”),^[6][4] and Dictionary.com traces the word to it through Middle English.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who or that which cleanses: Old English, where Bosworth–Toller glosses clǣnsere as a cleanser, purifier or priest.^[1][5] An Old English text explains sacerdas as clǣnseras in English,^[5] and Etymonline gives "priest" as the Old English sense.^[4] Merriam-Webster dates it to before the 12th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the late 14th century, according to Etymonline, it was a thing that cleanses, usually figuratively, of purging sin, and also a purgative medicine;^[4] the OED records the sense "purgative" from 1528.^[1] The literal sense, one who or that which makes clean, Etymonline dates to the 1560s.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as something that evacuates foul humours or digests a sore, a detergent.^[8] Modern dictionaries define it chiefly as a cleaning preparation, for the skin, the teeth, glass or scouring.^[2][9] In Derbyshire mining a cleanser was a wire used to clear a bored hole.^[10]

Timeline

• Old English – clǣnsere, a cleanser, purifier; a priest.^[5][1][4]
• 1528 – a purgative.^[1]
• 1560s – one who or that which makes clean, in the literal sense.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cleaning substance, such as a detergent or a scouring powder: a bathroom cleanser.^[9][2]
2. A preparation for cleaning the skin, the teeth or glass: a gentle facial cleanser.^[2]
3. A person or thing that cleanses.^[2][1]
4. (obsolete) A purgative.^[1][8]

Related words

• cleanse
• clean

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)