dilution

Etymology

It is formed from English dilute + -ion in the view of the Shorter Oxford, Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com.^[2][3][4][5] The OED and Etymonline take it instead as a noun of action from Latin dīlūt-, the participial stem of dīluō (“to dissolve, wash away, dilute”),^[6][7] and Johnson gave Latin dilutio as its source.^[8] The Latin verb is formed from dis- (“apart”) and luō (“to wash”),^[6][7] the combining form of lavō (“to wash”), from Proto-Indo-European *leue- (“to wash”).^[7] The same noun, dilution, was admitted to the dictionary of the French Academy in 1878.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of making something thinner, more fluid or weaker by adding water or another liquid: 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica.^[6][3] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s,^[7] and Dictionary.com to 1640–50.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as the making of anything thin or weak and set it against coagulation, quoting Arbuthnot.^[8] From 1805 it also meant the diluted condition itself, and later the degree to which a solution is diluted.^[6][2] Emerson used it in 1861 for a thing in a diluted state.^[6] In the First World War it took on an industrial sense, the replacement of skilled workers by unskilled or semi-skilled ones (1916),^[6][2] which fits a wider pattern, since the second half of the 19th century, of describing occupations and work in terms of liquids.^[9] Figurative uses for a weakening of ideas or of strength are also recorded,^[3][7] and in finance it is the reduction in the value of existing shares when new shares are issued.^[10]

Timeline

• 1646 – the action of diluting, watering down.^[6][3]
• 1805 – diluted condition.^[6]
• 1861 – a thing in a diluted state.^[6]
• 1916 – the substitution of unskilled for skilled workers.^[6][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or process of diluting something, or the state of being diluted: the dilution of the syrup with water.^[3][11][10]
2. A diluted substance or solution: a weak dilution of the antiserum.^[3][11][6]
3. The degree to which a solution has been diluted.^[2]
4. A weakening of force, quality or effect.^[3][7]
5. (finance) A reduction in the equity value of existing shares when further shares are issued.^[10]
6. The replacement of skilled workers by unskilled or semi-skilled ones, or the breaking down of skilled work into simple tasks.^[6][2][3]

Word family

• antidilution
• hemodilution
• nondilution
• overdilution

Related words

• dilute
• lave

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ 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.
9. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins