Etymologically
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disclose

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /dɪsˈkləʊz/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English disclosen (also desclosen),[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman disclos- and Middle French desclos-, the stem of desclore (“to open, unlock, reveal”) (modern French déclore),[4][5][6] from des- and clore (“to close”),[7][2][5] from Latin claudō (“to close”).[7][3][8] Merriam-Webster and Skeat put Medieval Latin disclaudō (“to open”) between them.[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both the physical sense, to uncover and expose to view, and the sense to make known, especially something secret, appear before 1393 in Gower's Confessio Amantis.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Several physical senses died out: to open up or unfold something closed, especially of buds and flowers (about 1440 to 1861),[4][11] and to hatch young from an egg (about 1450 to 1899).[4][12] An intransitive use, of news, to come to light, lasted from about 1513 to 1737.[4] The sense of making information known became the main one.[4][7] disclosure, formed in English on the model of closure, is from before 1598.[2]

Timeline

  • a. 1393 – to uncover; to make known.[4][2]
  • c. 1440 – to open up, unfold (obsolete by 1861).[4]
  • c. 1450 – to hatch (obsolete).[4]
  • 1548 – a noun disclose, disclosure (obsolete).[9][11]
  • before 1598 – disclosure.[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To make known something that was secret or private; to reveal.
  2. To expose to view, as by removing a cover; to uncover.

Word family

  • disclosable
  • discloser
  • predisclose

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press