deteriorate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin dēteriōrō (“to make worse; to get worse”), from its past participle dēteriōrātus,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} perhaps also through the influence of French détériorer, itself a learned borrowing from Latin.^[4] The verb comes from Latin dēterior (“worse, lower, inferior”),^[3][7][8] the comparative of an earlier adjective *dēter (“lower, bad”),^[3][4][9] formed from dē (“down, away”) with the suffix -ter and the comparative suffix -ior.^[8][5][10] Dictionary.com compares the same formative in exterior and interior,^[11] and Etymonline traces the base to Proto-Indo-European *de-, a demonstrative stem.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make worse, to lower in quality: the OED's first record is in the Scottish Acts of James VI, 1572,^[2] and Merriam-Webster also dates the transitive sense 1572.^[5] Etymonline and Barnhart date the verb only to the 1640s (1644).^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

For nearly two centuries the verb was transitive, "to make worse".^[2][3][9] The intransitive sense, "to grow worse, degenerate", is first recorded in 1758, in Oliver Goldsmith's essays,^[2][3] and is now the usual one: Hoad dates "make worse" to the 16th century and "grow worse" to the 18th.^[9] An earlier participial adjective deteriorate, worsened, is now obsolete.^[12][2] The noun deterioration is recorded from 1658, borrowed from French or formed in English.^[4]

Timeline

• 1572 – transitive, to make worse.^[2][5] Etymonline and Barnhart date it to 1644.^[3][4]
• 1658 – the noun deterioration.^[4]
• 1758 – intransitive, to grow worse, degenerate.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become worse in quality, value, condition or character: His eyesight deteriorated with age.^[5][13][2]
2. To make worse; to impair: Neglect had deteriorated the old barn.^[5][13][2]
3. To wear away or disintegrate.^[13]

Word family

• deterioration
• deteriorative
• undeteriorated

Related words

• interior
• exterior
• inferior
• de-

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins