eruption

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English erupcioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin ēruptiō (“a breaking out”),^[4][3][5][6] perhaps also borrowed from Old French éruption;^[3][7][8][9] the OED compares the French word.^[4] The Latin noun is formed from the past participle of ērumpō (“to break out, burst forth”),^[3][10][6] from ex- (“out”) and rumpō (“to break”),^[3][9][11] the source of rupture.^[3][6] The verb erupt is recorded later, from 1657.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A breaking out of pustules on the skin: before 1425, in a Middle English translation of Chauliac's surgery, which glosses erupcioun as "brusting out".^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The OED's first record of the general sense, a bursting forth of water, fire or air from natural or artificial limits, is from 1555.^[4][5] Shakespeare used it in 1598 of a skin rash and figuratively of an outbreak,^[4] and Weekley quotes Henry IV, Part 1: "Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth / In strange eruptions".^[11] The OED notes that the medical sense was at first thought of as a breaking out of hidden disease or "peccant humours".^[4] From 1615 it was used of people breaking out of a place, such as armed men sallying from a stronghold.^[4] The volcanic sense is recorded from 1740, in a letter of Thomas Gray,^[4] and the cutting of teeth through the gums from 1859.^[4][7] In Suffolk dialect it could mean an incursion, as of cattle into a neighbour's field.^[12]

Timeline

• ?a1425 – a breaking out of pustules, in a translation of Chauliac.^[2]
• 1555 – a bursting forth of water, fire or air.^[4][5]
• 1598 – an outbreak of something (figurative); a skin rash, in Shakespeare.^[4]
• 1615 – of people, a sudden sally from within boundaries.^[4]
• 1626 – of plants, a bursting forth of buds (obsolete by 1713).^[4]
• 1699 – that which bursts forth, a rush of flame or smoke.^[4]
• 1740 – the eruption of a volcano.^[4]
• 1859 – the breaking of the teeth through the gums.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An act or instance of erupting, especially a sudden outbreak of volcanic activity, with lava, ash or gas thrown out: The town was buried by the eruption.^[5][4][7]
2. A sudden outbreak or outburst of something, such as violence, disease or laughter: an eruption of anger.^[5][4][7]
3. A breaking out of a rash or spots on the skin; also the rash itself.^[5][4][7]
4. The emergence of a tooth through the gums.^[5][4][7]
5. That which bursts out, such as a rush of flame or water.^[4][7]

Word family

• eruptional
• noneruption

Related words

• erupt
• eruptive
• rupture
• irruption
• corrupt

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 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 s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)