deletion

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēlētiō (“destruction, annihilation”),^[2][3][4][5] from the past participle of dēleō (“to wipe out, destroy, blot out”), and the noun suffix -iō.^[2][6][7] In post-classical Latin of the 16th century the noun also meant elision.^[2] It is the noun of delete.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Destruction, annihilation: before 1513, in John Irland's Meroure of Wyssdome, a Scots text.^[2] The Shorter Oxford dates the word to the late 15th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, destruction, is now rare or archaic.^[2][7] From 1590 the word meant the striking out of something written or printed,^[2][3] and Etymonline dates "a word or passage deleted" to the 1580s and "the act of blotting out" to about 1600.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave both "act of rasing or blotting out" and "a destruction".^[5] The 20th century added technical senses: in genetics the loss of a segment of a chromosome (1928), in linguistics the omission of an element from a word or sentence (1934), in the record trade the withdrawal of a recording from a catalogue (1937), and in computing the removal of text or data (1956) and of a file (1962).^[2]

Timeline

• before 1513 – destruction, annihilation (now rare).^[2]
• 1590 – the striking out of written or printed matter.^[2][3] Etymonline dates the sense "a word or passage deleted" to the 1580s.^[6]
• 1928 – genetics, the loss of a segment of a chromosome.^[2]
• 1934 – linguistics, the omission of an element from a word or sentence.^[2]
• 1937 – the withdrawal of a recording from a record company's catalogue.^[2]
• 1956 – computing, the removal of text or data from a document.^[2]
• 1962 – the removal of a file from a computer's memory.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of deleting, erasing or removing something, especially written matter or data; the fact of being deleted.^[8][3][2]
2. A deleted word, passage or other item: The editor's deletions shortened the article by a third.^[8][3]
3. (genetics) The loss of a segment of a chromosome or of a stretch of DNA.^[8][3][2]
4. (linguistics) The omission of one or more elements from a word or sentence; elision.^[2]
5. A recording withdrawn from a record company's catalogue.^[2]
6. (archaic) Destruction or annihilation.^[7][2][3]

Related words

• delete

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins