evaporation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English evaporacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French evaporation^[5][2][6][7] and directly borrowed from Latin ēvapōrātiō,^[5][2][8][9] a noun of action from ēvapōrō (“to disperse in vapour or steam”),^[5][2][7] formed from ex (“out”) and vapor (“steam”), the source of vapour.^[5][2] Merriam-Webster names the French source as Middle French.^[3] The verb evaporate is recorded a little later, probably before 1425, partly as a back-formation from the noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The passing off of something as vapour: before 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De Proprietatibus Rerum,^[7][2][8] where it is used of quicksilver.^[8] In Middle English the word belonged to medicine and natural science, and was also used for drawing harmful matter out of the body as vapour.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From its first, general sense of turning into vapour the word spread in the 16th century to the giving off of moisture (1551) and to the vapour or fumes produced (1541);^[7] for a while it also meant the emitting of breath or fire (1555–1754), insensible perspiration (1626–1721) and treatment with vapour, a vapour bath (1583–1601).^[7] Johnson (1755) gave three senses: the act of flying away in fumes or vapours, the act of making matter fume away, and, in pharmacy, the driving off of a liquid to leave the rest stronger.^[10] That last, technical sense, driving off liquid by heat to concentrate a substance, is recorded from 1718.^[7][10] The figurative sense, a vanishing or fading away, appears in Byron's Don Juan in 1824.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1398 – the process of turning into vapour.^[7][2][8]
• 1541 – the vapour or fumes produced.^[7]
• 1551 – the giving off of moisture.^[7]
• 1583 – treatment with vapour, a vapour bath (obsolete by 1601).^[7]
• 1718 – driving off the liquid part of a substance by heat.^[7]
• 1824 – figurative, a vanishing or fading away.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The process by which a liquid (or a solid) turns into vapour: Evaporation from the lake is fastest in August.^{[3][11][7][9]}
2. The removal of the liquid part of a substance by heating, so as to concentrate or dry what remains: salt produced by the evaporation of seawater.^[3][7][10]
3. The release of molecules from a heated metal so that they settle as a thin film on nearby surfaces.^[3]
4. (figurative) A gradual fading or disappearance.^[7]
5. (obsolete, 1583–1601) Medical treatment by vapour; a vapour bath.^[7][9]

Word family

• evaporatively
• evapotranspiration
• nonevaporation

Related words

• evaporate
• vapour
• evaporative

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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)
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt