excavate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin excavātus (“hollowed out”),^[2][3][4] the past participle of excavō (“to hollow out”),^[5][6][7][8] formed from ex- (“out”) and cavō (“to make hollow”),^[5][6][2][4] from cavus (“hollow”).^[5][6][7][9] The English ending is -ate.^[3][7][9] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace the Latin adjective to Proto-Indo-European *keue- (“to swell; vault, hole”).^[2][6] The OED derives the adjective from the participle and the verb from its stem, while Barnhart thinks that the verb probably grew out of the adjective.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, hollowed out: perhaps before 1560, in Digges's Pantometria, printed in 1571,^[5] the year Barnhart gives.^[3] As a verb, to make hollow by removing the inside: 1599, in A. M.'s translation of Gaebelkhover's Boock of Physicke.^[5][3][4]

Semantic evolution

At first the word described what happens to the thing hollowed out, and the adjective stayed rare.^[5][8] Cockeram's dictionary (1623) has a verb excave, to hollow.^[2] Johnson (1755) still defined excavate only as to hollow, or to cut into hollows, quoting Ray on a pepper-corn excavated to hold a thousand cups.^[10] The noun excavation is recorded from 1611, in Cotgrave, for the action of digging out hollows;^[5][3] from 1781 it could also be the hollow itself.^[5] In the 19th century the focus moved to what is dug: making a hole or channel (1839), laying something bare by digging (1840), digging as an activity, especially in mining and archaeology (1843), and getting something out of the ground (1848).^[5] The Shorter Oxford notes the systematic exploration of an archaeological site, and a figurative unearthing.^[8] Excavator is recorded from 1815.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1560 – adjective, hollowed out.^[5]
• 1599 – verb, to make hollow by removing the inside.^[5][3][4]
• 1839 – to form a hole or channel by hollowing.^[5]
• 1840 – to uncover by digging, to unearth.^[5]
• 1843 – intransitive, to dig, especially in mining or archaeology.^[5]
• 1848 – to get out by digging.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make hollow, or to form a cavity in: Burrowing crabs had excavated the riverbank.^[4][5][8]
2. To make a hole, tunnel or channel by removing material: The crew excavated a drainage ditch beside the road.^[4][11][5]
3. To dig out and remove earth, ore or the like: Miners excavated tons of gravel from the pit.^[4][11][5]
4. To uncover by digging, especially to explore an archaeological site methodically: The team excavated a Roman villa near the river.^[4][11][8]
5. To dig, especially in mining or archaeological work.^[5]

Adjective

1. (rare) Hollowed out.^[5][8]

Word family

• unexcavated

Related words

• excavation
• excavator
• cave
• cavern
• cavity

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins