Etymologically
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consumption

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 03:56. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kənˈsʌmp.ʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English consumpcioun, probably borrowed from Old French consumpcion and directly borrowed from Latin cōnsūmptiō (“a using up, wasting”),[2][3][4] from the past participle stem of cōnsūmere (“to use up, eat, waste”) (see consume),[2][3] from com-, probably intensive, and sūmere (“to take”),[2] from sub- and emere “to buy, take”, from PIE Proto-Indo-European *em- (“to take”).[2] The p of the Latin forms was inserted where m stood before a t.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The wasting of the body by disease: 1398 in the OED, before 1398 in Barnhart, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew.[5][3] It replaced Old English yfeladl “the evil disease”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Specifically pulmonary consumption, tuberculosis, is from the 1650s.[3][5] Destruction in general is from 1563–87, and decay or wasting away from 1513.[5] The using up of material, or eating, is from before 1535, in Sir Thomas More,[3][5] and in economics, as opposed to production, from 1662.[3] The amount consumed, as in fuel consumption, is a modern sense.[6][7] Consumptive is from before 1398 as a noun and before 1425 as an adjective.[3]

Timeline

  • 1398 – a wasting disease.[5]
  • 1513 – decay.[5]
  • a1535 – using up of material.[5][3]
  • 1650s – tuberculosis.[3]
  • 1662 – in economics.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The using up of something, such as food, energy or goods.
  2. The amount used: fuel consumption.
  3. (economics) Spending on goods and services.
  4. (dated) Tuberculosis of the lungs.

Word family

  • nonconsumption
  • overconsumption
  • self-consumption
  • underconsumption
  • conspicuous consumption

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins