excavation

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin excavātiō (“a hollowing out”),^[2][3][4][5] possibly by way of French excavation, as the OED, the Shorter Oxford, Hoad and Skeat allow.^[2][6][7][8] The Latin noun of action comes from excavō (“to hollow out”),^[2][3] formed from ex- (“out”) and cavō (“to hollow”), from cavus (“hollow”).^[3][9][7] Etymonline traces cavus to Proto-Indo-European *keue- (“to swell; vault, hole”).^[3] The verb excavate is recorded a little earlier, from the 1590s.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of digging out a hollow: 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) gave two senses, the act of cutting into hollows and the hollow so formed.^[10] The concrete sense, a hollow or cavity made by digging, is dated 1781 by the OED and 1779 by Etymonline.^[2][3] From 1864 the word was also used of laying something bare by digging, an unearthing;^[2] the Shorter Oxford and Merriam-Webster record the special sense of digging out the remains of an earlier civilization as part of an archaeological investigation.^[6][5]

Timeline

• 1611 – the action of digging out a hollow.^[2][5]
• 1755 – Johnson: the act of cutting into hollows; the hollow formed.^[10]
• 1779 – an excavated place, in Etymonline.^[3]
• 1781 – an excavated space, a cavity, in the OED.^[2]
• 1864 – the process of laying bare by digging; an unearthing.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The action or process of excavating; digging out earth or rock: Excavation for the new car park began in March.^[11][5][2]
2. The digging out of buried remains of an earlier age or civilization, as part of an archaeological investigation.^[5][6]
3. A hole or cavity made by digging.^[11][5][2]

Word family

• excavational
• nonexcavation
• reexcavation

Related words

• excavate
• cave
• cavity
• concave

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin