evaporate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English evaporaten,^[2][3] borrowed from Late Latin ēvapōrātus (“dispersed in vapour”),^[4][5][2][6] the past participle of ēvapōrō (“to disperse in vapour”),^[5][6][7] from ē- (“out”) and vapor (“steam”).^[4][8][7] Compare French évaporer.^[4] The noun evaporation is older, from the late 14th century.^[5][4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To draw off bodily humours or spirits as vapour: before 1425, in a Middle English text of Chauliac,^[2][5] and Hoad finds the participle already in the 14th century.^[9] The OED, in an entry not yet revised, begins only in 1545, with something given off as vapour.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word began in medicine, with humours driven out of the body as vapour,^[2][10] and by the mid-16th century it had moved to ordinary physical change: turning something into vapour from 1555^[4] and becoming vapour from 1567.^[4][5] Figurative uses followed almost at once, from 1601 with an object and before 1631 without one,^[4] of things wasted or dissipated.^[4][10] Johnson (1755) gave the transitive sense as driving away in fumes and also "to give vent to", quoting Wotton on Essex evaporating his thoughts in a sonnet.^[11] From 1646 it was used for driving off the liquid of a substance to leave a residue,^[4] which gave evaporated milk in 1870.^[5] Pope in 1713 applied it humorously to people who vanish,^[4] and slang records it for leaving (1727) and even for dying, in Byron in 1821.^[12] A noun evaporate, the rock now called evaporite, appears in 1920.^[4][10]

Timeline

• before 1425 – to draw off humours as vapour.^[2][5]
• 1545 – to be given off as vapour (obsolete by 1799).^[4]
• 1555 – transitive, to turn into vapour.^[4]
• 1567 – intransitive, to become vapour.^[4][5]
• 1601 – figurative, transitive.^[4]
• before 1631 – of things, to pass off like vapour, to be wasted.^[4]
• 1646 – to drive off the liquid part of a substance.^[4]
• 1713 – humorously of people, to vanish.^[4]
• 1738 – intransitive, to give off moisture.^[4]
• 1870 – evaporated milk.^[5]
• 1920 – noun, in geology, an evaporite.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To change from a liquid or solid into vapour, or to cause this: The puddles evaporated in the morning sun.^[13][7][4]
2. To lose liquid by vaporization, leaving a denser residue, or to cause a substance to do so.^[13][4]
3. To disappear or fade away: His confidence evaporated when the exam began.^[13][7][4]
4. To deposit a film of metal or the like by vaporizing a substance and letting the vapour condense.^[13]
5. (humorous) Of a person, to vanish or leave.^[4][10][12]
6. (obsolete, 1611–1720) To give out as vapour or let out; to give vent to.^[4][11]

Word family

• evaporation
• evaporative
• evaporatively
• evaporator
• unevaporated
• nonevaporating

Related words

• vapor
• vapid

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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. ^ 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
11. ^ 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.
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins