discharge

Pronunciation

• IPA: noun UK /ˈdɪs.tʃɑːdʒ/, US /ˈdɪs.tʃɑːrdʒ/; verb UK /dɪsˈtʃɑːdʒ/, US /dɪsˈtʃɑːrdʒ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dischargen, borrowed from Old French deschargier (“to unload”) (modern French décharger),^[2][3][4][5] from Late Latin discarricō (“to unload”),^[2][3][6] from dis-, expressing reversal, and carricō (“to load a wagon”) (see charge), from Latin carrus (“two-wheeled wagon”) (see car).^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To relieve of an obligation, to exonerate: about 1330 in the OED, before 1338 in Mannyng's Chronicle in Barnhart, the early 14th century in Etymonline.^[7][2][3]

Semantic evolution

To unload a ship is from 1382,^[7] and to perform one's duties and to dismiss from employment from about 1400.^[3] Of weapons, to fire is from the 1550s, and to go off from the 1580s;^[3][7] of a river, to empty itself, from about 1600.^[3] The electrical sense is first attested in 1748.^[3][7] The noun is from 1390, in Gower,^[2] meaning release from work from the early 15th century, the firing of a weapon from the 1590s, and that which is emitted from 1727.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – to relieve of an obligation.^[7]
• 1382 – to unload a ship.^[7]
• 1390 – a discharge (noun).^[2]
• c. 1400 – to dismiss from employment.^[3]
• 1550s – to fire a weapon.^[3]
• 1748 – electrical discharge.^[3][7]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To release or allow to go: the hospital discharged the patient.
2. To dismiss from duty, office or employment.
3. To fire a gun, or of a gun, to go off.
4. To pour forth or emit: the boil discharges pus.
5. To unload cargo from a ship.
6. To perform duties or meet obligations.
7. To release stored energy or electric charge.

Noun

1. The act of discharging, such as release or dismissal.
2. The firing of a weapon.
3. A flowing out; something discharged, such as pus.

Word family

• dischargeable
• dischargee
• discharger
• nondischarging
• redischarge
• undischarged
• predischarge
• corona discharge

Related words

• charge
• cargo
• car
• carry

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press