devoid

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English devoid, originally the past participle of the verb devoiden (“to remove, expel, vacate”), short for (or a variant of) the regular participle devoided.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The verb is borrowed from Old French desvuidier (“to empty out”), also devoidier and desvoidier,^[2][3][8][9] the source of dévider (“to unwind”).^[3][10][2] It was formed from des- (“out, away”), from Latin dis-,^[3][8][4] and voidier (“to empty”), from voide (“empty”), the source of void.^[3][4][8] Etymonline takes the adjective back to Latin vocīvus (“unoccupied, vacant”), a derivative of vacō (“to be empty”),^[3] and the OED compares Medieval Latin disvacuō, used in the same sense.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lacking, empty or destitute of something (with of): about 1400, in the Romaunt of the Rose,^[2][3] which Barnhart attributes to Chaucer's translation of the Roman de la Rose.^[4] The verb devoiden, to drive out, expel or remove, is recorded earlier, in Arthour and Merlin (about 1330, composed before 1300).^[9][4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective began as a participle, like bereft, and so was used only after a verb, with of.^[2][11] Without of, meaning simply empty or vacant, it is rare; the OED's first example is from Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590),^[2] a line that Johnson quoted for the sense "empty; vacant; void" and that MWU still gives for the obsolete sense.^[12][6] The verb it came from, with the senses to expel, to vacate, to withdraw and to empty, was used from about 1325 to about 1600,^[2][5] and the OED notes that in the 15th and 16th centuries its forms were sometimes confused with divide.^[2] A modern verb devoid, to make devoid, is a rare nonce use (1878),^[2] which the Shorter Oxford explains as a back-formation from the adjective.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – the verb devoid, to vacate or leave.^[2]
• c. 1330 – devoiden, to drive out, in Arthour and Merlin.^[9]
• c. 1400 – adjective, lacking, destitute (with of), in the Romaunt of the Rose.^[2][3]
• 1590 – without of: empty, void, in Spenser's Faerie Queene.^[2][12]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as empty, and as free from or in want of something.^[12]
• 1878 – a rare verb, to make devoid.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Entirely without something; lacking or destitute (followed by of): a speech devoid of any real argument.^[11][6][2]
2. Free from something unwanted (followed by of).^[11][6]
3. (obsolete) Empty, vacant, void.^[6][12][2]

Related words

• void
• avoid
• vacant
• vacuum
• divide

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c 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)
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.