egress

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman egres (“liberty to go out or leave”), also egresse, the Law French of the source translated in its first record (1482 or earlier), and partly borrowed from Latin ēgressus (“a going out; an outlet”), which is the etymon of the Law French word.^[2] Older dictionaries give the Latin alone,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} and Barnhart and Etymonline allow as well a back-formation from the earlier egression.^[8][3] The Latin noun is formed from the past participle of ēgredior (“to go out”),^[2][3][4] from ex- (“out”) and gradior (“to step, go”),^[3][9][4] from Proto-Indo-European *ghredh- (“to walk, go”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of going out, or the liberty to do so: in the 1528–30 translation of Littleton's Tenures.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the noun to 1538,^[8][5] but the revised OED has the earlier record.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English in a law book, for the liberty to leave a place, and the right to go out is still one of its senses.^[2][5] In later use it also covered emission or discharge.^[2] It was used figuratively from 1598, in early use often of death as a departure from life,^[2] an image already found in the Latin of medieval Britain.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as the act of going out, quoting Milton's "prohibit all egress",^[10] and added "the power" of doing so in 1773.^[10] Technical uses developed in anatomy, for the emergence of a nerve or vessel, from 1578, and in astronomy, for the end of a transit or eclipse, from 1664.^[2][6] The concrete sense, a way out, is recorded from 1660 in the OED;^[2] Etymonline has the 1670s and Barnhart 1677.^[3][8] The verb was made from the noun in 1578, and its use with a place as object is more recent.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1528 – going out or leaving; liberty to go out.^[2]
• 1578 – in anatomy, the emergence of a nerve or vessel.^[2]
• 1578 – verb, to go out or leave.^[2][5][8]
• 1598 – figurative, often of death.^[2]
• 1660 – a way out, an exit.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1670s and Barnhart to 1677.^[3][8]
• 1663 – verb, to cause to go out; to emit.^[2]
• 1664 – in astronomy, the passing of a body from the disc of the sun or a planet in a transit.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of going or coming out; emergence.^[11][5][2]
2. The right or permission to go out: The lease guarantees tenants ingress and egress over the lane.^[11][5][2]
3. A way out; an exit or outlet.^[11][5][2]
4. (astronomy) The emergence of a celestial body from an eclipse, occultation or transit.^[5][2][6]
5. (anatomy, now rare) The emergence of a nerve or vessel from a structure or organ.^[2]

Verb

1. To go out or leave; also, with an object, to leave a place.^[11][5][2]
2. To cause to go out; to send out.^[2]

Related words

• ingress
• regress
• egression
• grade

Usage notes

The noun is stressed on the first syllable; the verb is usually stressed on the second.^[11][6][2]

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 q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins