eradication

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English eradicacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin ērādīcātiō,^[5][3][4][6] which Merriam-Webster calls Late Latin.^[7] The Latin noun of action is formed from ērādīcō (“to root out, extirpate”),^[5][4][8] a compound of ē-, a form of ex- (“out”), and rādīx (“root”).^[4][9][8] The American Heritage Dictionary connects rādīx with the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *wrād-.^[10] The Latin root word is also the source of radical and radish, and is related to root.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pulling out by the roots, in surgery: the Middle English translation of Guy de Chauliac's surgery, from before 1425, explains the word as "drawing up by the root", of a cancer and of teeth.^[2] The OED's first record is from 1548, in a letter of the Duke of Somerset to the inhabitants of Scotland.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The OED defines the word as pulling out by the roots, total destruction, or extirpation.^[5] Johnson (1755) gave two senses, the act of tearing up by the root and the state of being torn up by the roots, and quoted Sir Thomas Browne: "They affirm the roots of mandrakes give a shriek upon eradication, which is false below confutation".^[11] Ayto notes that the verb eradicate was often used literally in the 16th and 17th centuries, but that the figurative sense of removing something totally has taken over since then;^[9] Merriam-Webster now applies the noun alike to weeds, plant diseases and political opponents.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1425 – pulling out by the roots, in a surgical text.^[2][3]
• 1548 – pulling out by the roots; total destruction.^[5]
• 1755 – the act of tearing up by the root, and the state of being torn up, in Johnson.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or process of eradicating something; complete destruction or removal: the eradication of a disease from a region.^[7][5][12]
2. The state of having been eradicated.^[12][11]
3. The act of pulling a plant up by the roots; extirpation.^[5][11]

Related words

• eradicate
• radical
• radish
• radix
• root

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 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 f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers