depress

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English depressen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French depresser (“to press down, lower”),^[2][5][6][3] from Late Latin dēpressō (“to press hard”),^[5][6][7][8] a frequentative of Latin dēprimō (“to force down”),^[5][6][7] from dē- (“down”) and premō (“to press”),^[5][6][3] from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to strike”).^[6][3] The OED takes the English verb as partly a direct borrowing from the past participial stem Latin dēpress-,^[5] and Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com derive the French verb from the participle dēpressus.^[4][9] It is related to press.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put down by force, to overthrow or subdue: about 1400, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.^[5] The 1989 edition of the OED dated the sense about 1325,^[12] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1275–1325,^[9] and Barnhart gives probably about 1380.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb already covered lowering in position, fortune and esteem, repressing feelings and lowering the pitch of a sound, and in post-classical Latin it could mean to sadden.^[5] The English verb began with the military sense of overthrowing an enemy, which lasted until 1675,^[5][6] and the physical sense of pushing something down followed before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's surgery.^[5][2][13] About 1425 it also meant to reduce the strength or activity of something.^[5] Social and moral senses came next: to keep a group in subjection (before 1500) and to lower someone in rank (1526),^[5][14] both now rare.^[5] The emotional sense, to make gloomy, is the one that now comes first in dictionaries.^[3][15] The Historical Thesaurus dates it from 1613,^[14] and Etymonline and Barnhart from the 1620s, Barnhart citing Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy of 1621,^[6][13] though the Shorter Oxford puts it in late Middle English.^[8] Johnson (1755) already defined the verb as to humble and deject.^[16] The economic sense, to lower in value, is recorded from 1878.^[6][13][8] Weekley compares the figurative sense of deject.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – to put down by force, to subdue (obsolete by 1675).^[5]
• before 1425 – to push or press down.^[5][2]
• c. 1425 – to reduce in energy, force or intensity.^[5]
• before 1500 – to keep a person or group in subjection.^[5]
• 1526 – to lower someone in status.^[5]
• 1530 – to lower the pitch of a sound.^[5]
• 1613 – to affect the mind with gloom.^[14] Barnhart first records it in 1621.^[13]
• 1616 – intransitive, to sink into a lower position.^[5]
• 1878 – to lower in market value.^[6][13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make someone sad or low in spirits; to deject.^[3][15][18]
2. To press or push something down: She depressed the pedal with her foot.^[3][15][8]
3. To cause something to sink or drop to a lower level.^[3][4][5]
4. To reduce the activity, force or strength of something, such as an economy or a bodily function.^[3][15][5]
5. To lower prices in a financial market.^[3][15]
6. (rare) To lower the pitch of a sound.^[15][5]
7. (obsolete, c. 1400–1675) To put down by force; to subjugate.^[5][15][8]

Word family

• depressible
• depressibility
• depressomotor
• overdepress
• depressant
• depressed
• depression
• depressing

Related words

• press
• pressure
• compress
• express
• impress
• oppress
• repress
• suppress

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
18. ^ Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt