Etymologically
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degradation

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˌdɛɡɹəˈdeɪʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French dégradation, recorded in French from the 14th century,[2][3][4] or dēgradātiō (“deposition from one's rank”),[4][5][6][7][8] a noun of action from dēgradātus, the past participle of dēgradō (“to degrade”).[2][5][8] Etymonline gives the Old French form as degradacion.[3] The verb, the source of degrade, is formed from dē- (“down”) and gradus (“step”),[9] from Proto-Indo-European *ghredh- (“to walk, go”).[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Removal from a rank, office or position of honour as a punishment, especially the depriving of a clergyman of his orders: before 1535, in Thomas More.[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1530s,[3] Merriam-Webster to about 1535,[4] and Dictionary.com to 1525–35.[8]

Semantic evolution

The word moved from a formal reduction in rank to moral debasement (1663, in a sermon by Robert South) and a lowering in honour or social position (about 1752, in Johnson as quoted by Boswell).[2] Etymonline dates "the state of being reduced to a lower grade" to 1752.[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as the depriving of an office or dignity, and as degeneracy or baseness.[10] From 1769–70 it meant a reduction in strength, value or amount.[3][2] Geology took it up for the wearing down of rocks by weather and water (1799), and biology for the reduction of an organ to a less perfect state (1849).[2] In physics it is the conversion of energy into a less usable form (1871),[2][11] and since 1937 it has been used of the deterioration of an environment.[2] In chemistry it is the breakdown of a molecule into smaller ones.[11][4]

Timeline

  • before 1535 – removal from rank or office as a punishment.[2]
  • 1663 – moral debasement.[2]
  • c. 1752 – lowering in honour or social position.[2]
  • 1770 – reduction in strength or amount.[2]
  • 1799 – geology, the wearing down of rocks.[2]
  • 1849 – biology, reduction of an organ to a simpler form.[2]
  • 1871 – physics, conversion of energy into a less usable form.[2]
  • 1937 – deterioration of an environment.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act of degrading, or the state of being degraded; humiliation or loss of dignity: the degradation of the prisoners.[11][4][2]
  2. A state of moral or physical decline; squalor or poverty.[11][2]
  3. Reduction to a lower rank or position, especially the removal of a clergyman from office as a punishment.[4][11][2]
  4. Deterioration in quality, strength or amount, as of an environment.[2]
  5. (geology) The wearing down of rock surfaces by erosion and weathering.[11][2]
  6. (chemistry) The breakdown of a molecule into atoms or smaller molecules.[11][4]
  7. (physics) A process in which the energy available for work decreases.[11][2]

Word family

  • degradative
  • degradational
  • antidegradation
  • nondegradation

Usage notes

In painting, degradation (/ˌdiːɡrəˈdeɪʃən/) has been used since 1706 for the gradual toning down of colour or light to give an effect of distance; this sense came through French from Italian digradazione, from digradare (“to come down by degrees”).[2][6]

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 r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins