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except

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɪkˈsept/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English excepte,[2] borrowed from Old French excepté or directly borrowed from Latin exceptus,[2][3] the past participle of excipere (“to take out, withdraw; make an exception”),[4][3] from ex- (“out”) and capere (“to take”),[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grasp”).[4][3] The verb, Middle English excepten, is from Middle French excepter, from Latin exceptāre.[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a preposition, “with the exclusion of”: about 1378, in a version of Piers Plowman;[2] the OED's first quotation is from 1377.[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English except was a participle, “excepted”, which often stood before the noun, and in that position it gradually came to work as a preposition.[2][6] It is a conjunction, “unless”, from before 1387.[2][4] The verb is from before 1393, in Gower;[2] it first meant “to receive”, a frequent sense of Latin excipere, now obsolete,[4][6] and “to leave out” from 1530[6] or the 1510s.[4] “To object” is from 1577, surviving in take exception.[6]

Timeline

  • 1377 – preposition, other than.[6]
  • before 1387 – conjunction, unless.[2]
  • before 1393 – verb, to receive.[2][6]
  • 1530 – verb, to leave out.[6]
  • 1549 – excepting.[2]
  • 1577 – verb, to object.[6]

Modern meaning

Preposition

  1. Other than; but: everyone except me.

Conjunction

  1. Only; were it not for the fact that.
  2. (archaic) unless.

Verb

  1. To leave out; to exclude.
  2. (rare) To object.

Word family

  • exceptive
  • exceptable
  • except for
  • exception
  • excipient
  • exceptional
  • excepting
  • accept
  • capture
  • captive
  • receive

Usage notes

Except is sometimes confused with accept, which comes from the same Latin verb with a different prefix.[7][4] In Scots except at meant “to take exception to”.[8]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)