dislocation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dislocacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French dislocacion (14th century),^[4][3][5] or directly borrowed from Medieval Latin dislocātiō,^[4][3][6][7] a noun of action from dislocō (“to put out of place”).^[4][3][6] The Medieval Latin verb is formed from Latin dis- (“away”) and locō (“to place”),^[3][6][5] from locus (“a place”), which is of uncertain origin.^[3] Dislocate comes from the same Medieval Latin verb.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Displacement of a bone from its joint, and also of an organ of the body: before 1400, in the English translation of Lanfranc's surgery, which speaks of bones going out of the joint and refers to "þe chapiter of dislocacioun", rendering Latin dislocationis.^[2][4] Etymonline likewise dates it to about 1400, "originally of bones of the limbs".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English as a surgical term,^[2][3] and the surgical texts of the early 15th century also used it for the displacement of an organ, such as the womb.^[2][4] The general sense, removal of anything from its proper place, is recorded from 1604 in Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall,^[4] and Etymonline dates the general sense to about 1600.^[3] A figurative use, disarrangement or a confused state of something immaterial, followed in 1659.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave three senses: the act of shifting things from their places, the state of being displaced, and a luxation, quoting Burnet on rocks that had suffered "some dislocation from their natural site".^[8] The geological sense, a fault in strata, is recorded from 1695, and a military sense, the distribution of an army's corps among garrisons and camps, from 1808, in Wellington's dispatches.^[4] The 20th century added a term of crystallography for a defect in a crystal lattice (1934) and a term of grammar for a noun phrase placed outside its clause (1967).^[4] Merriam-Webster also records the sense "disruption of an established order".^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – displacement of a bone from its joint, and formerly of other parts of the body.^[4][2][3]
• 1604 – displacement in general; removal from a proper place.^[4] Etymonline dates the general sense to about 1600.^[3]
• 1659 – figurative, a disarrangement or confused state.^[4]
• 1695 – in geology, a fault.^[4]
• 1808 – in military use, the distribution of an army's corps among garrisons and camps.^[4]
• 1934 – in crystallography, a defect in the lattice of a crystal.^[4]
• 1967 – in grammar, a noun phrase placed outside its clause.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of moving something out of its usual place, or the state of being so moved; disruption, especially of an established order: the dislocation caused by the factory's closure.^[10][9][11]
2. The displacement of a bone from its normal position in a joint; luxation.^[10][12][11]
3. (geology) A fault: a displacement of rock along a fracture.^[10][12][4]
4. (crystallography) A break in the otherwise regular lattice structure of a crystal.^[10][12][11]
5. (grammar) A sentence structure in which a noun phrase stands outside a clause, before or after it.^[4]

Related words

• dislocate
• locate
• location
• local
• locus

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster