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defile

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Etymology and origin of the English word defile

Pronunciation

  • UK: /dɪˈfaɪl/, /ˈdiː-/[1]
  • US: /dəˈfaɪl/, /ˈdiˌfaɪl/[1]

defile1 make foul

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1400 Romaunt of the Rose
Borrowed from
Old French defouler via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin fullō

Etymology

The verb meaning to make foul is inherited from Middle English defilen,[2][3][4] an alteration of defoulen, also defoilen,[5][6][2][7] borrowed from Old French defouler (“to trample down, oppress, violate”),[5][4][8][2] formed from de- (“down”) and fouler (“to tread, trample; to full cloth”),[4][8][2] from Vulgar Latin *fullō (“to full cloth”), from Latin fullō (“a fuller”),[4][6][9] the source of fuller.[9] In Anglo-Norman the verb is recorded from the early 12th century, with senses from trampling and crushing to defiling a woman.[10] By the 14th century defoulen had become associated with the English adjective foul and was used for "to pollute";[5][4] English already had the synonymous pairs befoul and befilen, and foulen and filen, the last from Old English fȳlan, a derivative of fūl (“foul”), and these pairs seem to have led to the new form beside the old one.[5][4][6][8] Ayto and the Oxford Dictionary of English name befilen as the model,[9][11][12] and the MED derives the verb from filen.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bruise or maul, a sense taken over from defoul: about 1400, in the Romaunt of the Rose.[5][8] Etymonline dates the sense "to desecrate, profane" to about 1400 and "to make foul or dirty" to the mid 15th century;[8] the MED's quotations for making dirty, polluting morally and desecrating begin about 1450.[3]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart notes that the link with foul gave the word the sense of material or moral pollution, which the French verb did not have.[4] The OED's first quotation for moral corruption is from about 1450, and that for physical dirt from Palsgrave (1530).[5] The Coverdale Bible of 1535 used it both for profaning what is sacred and for making a person ceremonially unclean.[5] The sense "to violate the chastity of" was taken over from defoul,[5] and older meanings such as "to dishonour" (1581–1709) and "to drop excrement" (1547–98) have died out.[5] A proverb quoted by Weekley and by the Shorter Oxford runs "It’s a foul bird that defiles its own nest".[13][12]

Timeline

  • c. 1280 – Middle English defoulen, the earlier form.[4]
  • c. 1400 – defile, to bruise or maul (obsolete).[5]
  • before 1400 – to violate the chastity of (obsolete by 1769 in the OED).[5]
  • c. 1450 – to make morally foul, to corrupt or taint.[5][3]
  • 1530 – to make physically foul or dirty.[5]
  • 1535 – to desecrate; to make ceremonially unclean.[5]
  • 1571 – defilement.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make dirty or filthy; to pollute: Oil from the wreck defiled the beaches.[7][2][5]
  2. To spoil the purity or perfection of; to corrupt or taint.[7][2][5]
  3. To damage someone's good name; to dishonour: Rumours defiled the dead man's memory.[7][2]
  4. To desecrate something sacred, or make it ceremonially unclean.[7][2][5]
  5. To violate the chastity of; to ravish.[7][2]

Word family

  • defilement
  • defiler
  • defilingly
  • defilable

defile2 narrow pass

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1685 London Gazette
Borrowed from
French défilé
Ultimate origin
Latin fīlum

Etymology

The narrow pass is borrowed from French défilé,[5][4][2][8] the noun use of the past participle of défiler (“to march by files”),[4][8][6][12] formed from dé- (“off”) and file (“row, column”),[4][8][5] from Latin fīlum (“thread”),[8][7] from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰi- (“thread, tendon”).[8] Merriam-Webster and Collins derive the French verb from filer (“to move in a column”), earlier "to spin", from Late Latin fīlō;[2][7] Klein glosses it literally "to unthread",[14] and the French verb is recorded from 1648.[5] The verb meaning to march in file is from the same French verb.[5][2][4] The final vowel of the French word was at first written with a double e in English, and then dropped, which made the noun look like the verb.[5][13][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A narrow way along which troops can march only in file: 1685, in the London Gazette.[5][4][2] Etymonline dates the noun to the 1640s.[8]

Semantic evolution

The word was a military term before it was a geographical one: a passage that forced an army to narrow its front.[5][8][2] Johnson (1755) defined it as a narrow passage or lane and quoted Addison, who used it of a place in Oxford, adding "to use the military term".[15] In ordinary use it came to mean a narrow pass or gorge between mountains.[5][2] The verb, to march off in a line, followed in 1705,[5][2][4] and the noun was also used for such a march from 1835, sometimes in the French form défilé.[5][12]

Timeline

  • 1685 – noun, a narrow passage that troops must pass in file.[5][4][2]
  • 1705 – verb, to march in a line or by files.[5][2][4]
  • 1761 – verb, to pass through something by files.[5]
  • 1835 – noun, a march by files.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A long narrow pass or gorge, as between mountains or cliffs.[2][5][12]
  2. (military) A narrow passage through which troops can march only in file or on a narrow front.[2][5][12]
  3. A march in single file or in narrow columns.[5][12]

Verb

  1. To march off or pass along in a line; to file off: The regiment defiled through the town gate.[2][5][12]

Usage notes

A rare third verb defile, from French défiler in the sense of unthreading, is a term of fortification meaning the same as defilade; it is first recorded in Webster's dictionary of 1864.[5] The noun is stressed on either syllable in British English, and on the first in American English.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 r s t u Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d 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)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ 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 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Defile.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/defile. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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