eject

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ejecten (“to expel”),^[2][3] borrowed from Latin ēiectus (“thrown out”), the past participle of ēiciō (“to throw out, cast out, expel”),^[4][3][5][6] formed from ex- (“out”) and the combining form of iaciō (“to throw”),^[4][3][7][6] from Proto-Indo-European *yē- (“to throw, impel”).^[4][6] The OED also allows ēiectō (“to cast out, throw up”), the frequentative of the Latin verb, as the source, and notes that the senses come partly from each verb;^[8] Barnhart likewise traces some senses to the frequentative.^[3] Klein refers the word to jet, from the same Latin verb.^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To expel a person from a place: in a Middle English translation of Higden's Polychronicon, dated probably before 1425 by Barnhart and the MED.^[3][2] The OED records the participle, meaning "ejected", from 1432–50 in a translation of Higden, and the verb itself only from 1555, in Richard Eden's translation of Peter Martyr, in the sense "to drive out by force from a place".^[8]

Semantic evolution

The legal and official sense, to remove someone from an office or to turn a tenant out of a property, followed in 1576.^[8] The physical sense, to throw out from within, is recorded from 1607, and its figurative use for darting out flames or light from 1616, in Ben Jonson.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to throw out; to cast forth; to void".^[10] In the mid 20th century it gained the intransitive sense of leaving an aircraft in an emergency.^[11][12] The noun eject was coined in 1878 by the mathematician W. K. Clifford, on the model of subject and object, for a mental state of another being that one can only infer.^[8][13][11] The related plural noun ejecta, matter thrown out by a volcano, dates from 1851.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1425 – ejecten, to expel a person from a place.^[3][2]
• 1432–50 – the participle eject, thrown out (obsolete by 1530).^[8]
• 1555 – to drive out by force from a place.^[8]
• 1576 – to expel from an office; to evict from property, especially in law.^[8]
• 1607 – to throw out from within.^[8]
• 1616 – figuratively, to emit flames or light.^[8]
• 1878 – noun, a mental state inferred in another mind.^[8][13]
• mid 20th century – to leave an aircraft in an emergency.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drive or force out, especially a person from a place; to expel: Security ejected two fans who ran onto the pitch.^[12][5][6]
2. To remove someone from an office or membership; to oust.^[12][5]
3. To evict from property; in law, to dispossess.^[5][12][8]
4. To throw out forcefully from within; to emit or discharge: The printer ejected the jammed sheet.^[6][11][12]
5. (sports) To send a player or coach off for the rest of a game.^[6]
6. To leave an aircraft quickly, using an ejection seat.^[12][11]
7. (psychiatry) To attribute one's own motives and traits to others.^[12]

Noun

1. A mental state or sensation of another being, inferred to exist but never an object of one's own consciousness.^[8][11]

Word family

• ejectable
• ejective
• ejection
• unejected
• reeject
• ejector

Related words

• ejaculate
• ejaculation
• ejecta
• ejectment
• jet
• project
• reject
• inject
• object
• subject

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ 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 f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray