Etymologically
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excel

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Pronunciation

  • /ɪkˈsɛl/, /ɛkˈsɛl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English excellen,[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French exceller,[5][6][7][8] from Latin excellō (“to rise above others, be eminent”).[5][9][10][2] Barnhart thinks it came from both French and Latin, and that it may also have been formed in English as a back-formation from excellence.[2] The Latin verb is made of ex- (“out”) and -cellō (“to rise high, tower”), a verb found only in compounds, whose root is seen in celsus (“high, lofty”).[5][9][10][3] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to be prominent; hill”),[9][4] which Merriam-Webster and Barnhart connect with hill and collis (“hill”).[3][2] Hoad and Klein relate it to column.[10][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To be superior or outstanding in some quality or action, used intransitively: the OED's first example is from Lydgate's Lyfe of Saint Albon, about 1430.[5] Barnhart dates the word to about 1408, in Lydgate's Reson and Sensuallyte,[2] and Etymonline gives about 1400 for the transitive sense "to surpass, be superior to".[9] Merriam-Webster dates it to the 15th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

The transitive use, to outdo or surpass others, is quoted by the OED from 1493.[5] In the 17th and early 18th centuries excel could also mean simply "to be greater than" (1703) or "to be too much for, overpower", in Milton's Paradise Lost (1667),[5] and "to preponderate";[5] these uses are now obsolete.[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as to outgo in good qualities, to surpass.[11] The verb is usually used of something good:[5] one excels at or in an activity.[12][13] The adjective excellent and the noun excellence are older in English, both from the 14th century.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – to surpass, be superior to.[9]
  • c. 1408 – excellen, in Lydgate.[2]
  • c. 1430 – to be outstanding (intransitive).[5]
  • 1493 – to outdo, surpass (transitive).[5]
  • 1667 – to overpower (obsolete).[5]
  • 1703 – to be greater than (obsolete).[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To be very good at something, or better than most others: She excels at chess.
  2. To be better than; to surpass or outdo: The new model excels its rivals in fuel economy.
  3. excel oneself: to do better than one usually does.

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press