Etymologically
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compression

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:17. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /kəmˈpɹɛʃ.ən/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French compression,[2][3][4][5] and partly a direct borrowing of Latin compressiō (“a pressing together”),[3][4] a noun of action formed on compressus, the past participle of comprimō (“to press together, squeeze”),[3][2][6][7] which is built from com- (“together”) and the verb that gave press.[8] The Middle English form was compressioun.[6][9] In Anglo-Norman the noun is recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of pressing or squeezing something together: c. 1400, in Lanfranc's Cirurgie, a surgical treatise,[2][9] where Middle English medical writers also used it of a constriction.[9]

Semantic evolution

For two centuries the word belonged mainly to surgery: Middle English writers used it of pressure on the brain and of a wound bound with plaster,[9] and in 1599 it could even name a compress itself.[2][11] The state of being compressed is recorded from 1603, in Florio's translation of Montaigne.[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as the forcing of a body's parts closer together "by violence".[12] From 1759, in Samuel Johnson's Idler, it was used of thought and language packed into few words,[2] part of a pattern, going back to the second half of the 16th century, of describing writing in terms of solidity and density.[13] The same year it could also mean a straitened or oppressed condition.[2][11] Engines brought technical senses: the reduction in volume of steam left in a cylinder (1859) and of the fuel and air mixture in an internal-combustion engine (1887).[2][4] Electronics added the reduction of a signal's variability in 1938,[2] and computing the storing of data in less space,[14] one of many computing uses drawn from words for size since the second half of the 20th century.[13]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – pressing together, squeezing.[2][9]
  • 1599 – a compress (obsolete, rare).[2]
  • 1603 – the state of being compressed.[2]
  • 1759 – of language, conciseness; also an oppressed condition.[2]
  • 1814 – compression of the poles, the flattening of a planet.[2]
  • 1859 – in a steam engine, the reduction in volume of steam.[2]
  • 1887 – in an internal-combustion engine;[2][4] also compressional wave.[3]
  • 1938 – in electronics, reducing a signal's variability.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The act of compressing something, or the state of being compressed: the compression of the spring under a heavy load.
  2. In an engine, the reduction in volume of the fuel and air mixture before ignition; also the degree of this.
  3. (computing) The encoding of data so that it takes up less storage space.
  4. (electronics) The reduction of the range of a signal.
  5. The condensing of thought or expression into few words.

Word family

  • compressional
  • noncompression
  • overcompression
  • precompression
  • supercompression
  • compression ratio
  • compression wave

References

  1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ 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)
  10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  11. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
  14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt