compress

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English compressen,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French compresser,^[4][3][5][6] and directly borrowed from Late Latin compressō (“to press together, oppress”),^[7][5][8] a frequentative of Latin comprimō (“to press together, restrain”),^[4][3][5] formed from com- (“together”) and premō (“to press”),^[4][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to strike”).^[9][5] The OED, Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English note that it could also be taken from the participial stem compressus of the same Latin verb.^[4][10][11] The noun is borrowed from Middle French compresse,^[4][3][7][6] recorded in French in the 16th century, in Paré,^[4] from compressa, from the past participle compressus.^[4][3] Etymonline instead derives the noun from the English verb.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To press together, to squeeze: about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[3] The OED's first record is from Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew de Glanville (1398), of making a hollow thing smaller.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense "to press a substance together so that it is firmer" spread in science to the condensing of a gas under pressure, recorded from before 1676;^[4] Etymonline dates compressed air to the 1660s.^[9] Hoad dates the sense "to condense" to the 18th century;^[10] from 1746 it was used of putting language or thought into fewer words.^[4] In surgery it meant to close a vessel by pressure (1804).^[4] Two senses died out: "to repress, keep under restraint" (1526–1847) and, in Chapman's Homer, "to embrace sexually" (about 1611–1725).^[4] In the 20th century the verb was applied to reducing a signal's amplitude or bandwidth in electronics (1943) and to reducing the size of computer files (1966).^[4][12] The noun was first a surgical pad, from 1599;^[4][3][9] Johnson (1755) defined it as bolsters of linen rags that surgeons fit to their bandages.^[13] In the United States it also named a machine, or a plant, for pressing cotton bales (1874).^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – verb, to press together, squeeze.^[3] The OED's first record is from 1398.^[4]
• 1526 – to repress, restrain (obsolete by 1847).^[4]
• 1599 – noun, a pad pressed on part of the body with a bandage.^[4][3][7]
• before 1676 – in physics, to reduce a gas in volume by pressure.^[4]
• 1746 – to condense words or thoughts.^[4]
• 1874 – noun, a machine for pressing cotton bales.^[4]
• 1943 – to reduce the amplitude variation or bandwidth of a signal.^[4]
• 1966 – to reduce the size of a computer file.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To press or squeeze together: She compressed her lips in irritation.^[14][7][12]
2. To make something smaller or more compact by or as if by pressure, as a gas: The pump compresses the air in the tank.^[14][7][4]
3. To condense something into a shorter form or a shorter time: He compressed the report into two pages.^[7][4]
4. To reduce the size of a computer file or other digital data so that it takes up less space.^[12][15][4]

Noun

1. A pad of folded cloth or gauze, wet or dry, pressed on a part of the body to stop bleeding, reduce inflammation or apply heat, cold or medicine: a cold compress.^{[14][7][12][4]}
2. A machine for compressing material, especially cotton into bales.^[14][7][4]

Word family

• compressible
• compressibly
• compressingly
• compressed
• compressibility
• compression
• compressive
• compressor

Related words

• press
• depress
• express
• impress
• oppress
• repress
• suppress
• reprimand

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ 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 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
15. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster