deprive

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English depriven, also depreven and deprifen,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman depriver and Middle French depriver (“to take something away from a person; to divest of office”),^[3][4][5] which is from Medieval Latin dēprīvō (“to divest of office”),^[3][4][6][7] a verb used often in British sources from the 13th century.^[3] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the late 13th century.^[8] Barnhart takes the English word directly from the Medieval Latin verb,^[9] and the MED gives both Medieval Latin and Old French as its source.^[2] That verb is formed from Latin dē- (“entirely, away”) + prīvō (“to rob, strip; to release from”),^{[4][10][6][9]} and prīvō comes from prīvus (“single, alone; one's own”),^[10][4] from Proto-Italic *prei-wo- (“separate, individual”).^[4] The English verb replaced Old English bedælan.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To dispossess a person of something: about 1350, in a Middle English Psalter, where it renders a form of prīvō.^[3][2] Barnhart dates the verb to before 1338, from Robert Mannyng's Chronicle,^[9] which the MED cites from a manuscript of before 1400.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Medieval Latin verb was a word of church discipline, "to divest of office",^[3][11] and the Oxford Dictionary of English gives "to depose from office" as the first English sense;^[6] in that sense it is recorded from before 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[3] The general sense of taking something valuable away from someone was there from the start, and Chaucer used the verb three times, as in Troilus: "Whi wiltow me fro joie thus deprive?"^[2][12] The construction with two objects, withholding something from a person, is recorded from the Wycliffite Bible of before 1382,^[3] and about 1400 Cleanness uses it for taking something away.^[3][2] Etymonline dates the sense "to keep from possessing" to the late 14th century.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to bereave one of a thing".^[13] The noun deprivation followed in 1445.^[9] Collins now labels the sense "to remove from rank or office" archaic.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – to dispossess a person of something.^[3][2] Barnhart dates the verb to before 1338.^[9]
• before 1382 – with two objects, to withhold something from a person.^[3]
• before 1387 – to remove a person from office; to depose.^[3]
• c. 1400 – to take something away; to suppress.^[3][2]
• 1445 – the noun deprivation.^[9]
• 1542 – to cut off from something or somewhere (obsolete by 1608).^[3]
• 1627 – to keep off, avert (rare).^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take something away from someone, or keep them from having or enjoying it; to dispossess, usually followed by of: The long drought deprived the farmers of their harvest.^[14][15][3]
2. (archaic) To remove someone from an office or rank; to depose.^[14][3]
3. (obsolete) To take away or remove; to destroy.^[15][3]

Word family

• deprivable
• deprival
• depriver

Related words

• deprivation
• private
• privation
• privy
• prive

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster