etch

Etymology

It is borrowed from Dutch etsen (“to etch”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from German ätzen (“to corrode, etch”),^[2][3][8][9] from Middle High German etzen, atzen,^[2][5] from Old High German azzen (“to feed, cause to bite”), also ezzen.^{[4][6][7][10]} This is Proto-Germanic *atjaną (“to make eat, feed”),^[11][3][8] the causative of *etaną (“to eat”), the source of eat,^[3][4][2][8] from Proto-Indo-European *ed- (“to eat”).^[3][5] The causative verb is also found in Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌰𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (fraatjan, “to give away as food”), Old Norse etja (“to feed; to goad on to fight”), Old English ettan (“to graze”), Old Frisian etta and Middle Dutch etten (“to put out to graze”).^{[12][11][10][13]} The link with eating lies in the process: the acid "eats away" the surface of the metal.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To engrave a metal plate by eating away its surface with acids, and to practise the art of etching: 1634, in J. Bate's Mysteryes of Nature & Art.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the verb to the 1630s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Etching was one of several art terms that English took from Dutch, with easel and landscape.^[14][15] From 1664 the verb was also used more generally for corroding, or eating out a substance with an acid.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) described the copperplate process at length, and gave a second sense, to sketch or delineate.^[16] The noun etching meant the art or process as early as 1634, and a print made from an etched plate in Walpole's writings of 1762.^[4] The figurative use, for producing or marking something sharply as if by etching, is recorded from Sterne's Sentimental Journey (1768),^[2] and in the 19th century came the sense of making something stand out clearly, as a mountain etched against the sky.^[7] The noun etch, the action of etching, dates from 1896,^[2][10] and in lithography from 1930 an etch is the solution of gum arabic and acid used on the stone.^[2][10]

Timeline

• 1634 – to engrave metal by eating away its surface with acid; also intransitive, to practise etching.^[2][4]
• 1664 – to corrode, and etch out, to eat out with an acid.^[2]
• 1762 – etching, a print from an etched plate.^[4]
• 1768 – figurative, to mark or produce as if by etching.^[2]
• 1896 – noun, the action or process of etching.^[2][10]
• 1930 – noun, in lithography, an acid solution applied to the stone.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To engrave a design on metal, glass or stone by coating the surface with an acid-resistant layer, scratching the design through it and letting an acid eat into the exposed lines: The printmaker etched a harbour scene on a zinc plate.^[10][17][7]
2. To wear away the surface of a material by chemical action; to corrode.^[17][2][7]
3. To cut or draw lines with a sharp point: The boy etched his initials into the bench.^[17][5]
4. To fix something sharply in the mind; to make something stand out clearly: The scene was etched in his memory.^[17][7]
5. To practise the art of etching.^[2][7]

Noun

1. The action or effect of an etching acid on metal or glass.^[10][2]
2. A chemical used in etching, especially a solution of gum arabic and acid used in lithography to keep the non-printing areas from taking ink.^[10][2][7]

Word family

• etcher
• macroetch

Related words

• etchant
• etching
• eat

Usage notes

A separate dialect noun etch, a contracted form of eddish, means the aftergrowth of grass after mowing (from 1580) or a stubble field (from 1727),^[2][7] and etch-crop, a crop sown on stubble, is recorded from 1704.^[2] Johnson (1755) quoted it from Mortimer's Husbandry as a country word whose meaning he did not know,^[16] and the English Dialect Dictionary lists etch as a form of eddish in Essex and Somerset.^[18]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ 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.
17. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ 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)