exception

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪkˈsep.ʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English excepcioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman excepcioun (“a formal objection”) (Old French excepcion),^[2][3][4] from Latin exceptiō (“an exception, restriction; an objection”),^[2][3] a noun of action from the past participle of excipere (“to take out”) (see except).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In law, a defendant's formal objection: about 1250 in the OED, the late 13th century in Anglo-French.^[6][2] Leaving something out from a rule is from about 1385 in the OED, the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

A reservation or exemption is from about 1400,^[2] and something that is excepted, a case outside a rule, from 1483.^[6][2] To take exception, to object, comes from the Roman legal use of excipere much as a lawyer now says “objection”.^[2] The maxim that the exception proves the rule (1617) is from law, Latin exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis, “the exception proves the rule in cases not excepted”, said to be from Cicero.^[6][2] The exception, something unusual as opposed to the rule, is from 1862.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – a legal objection.^[6]
• c. 1385 – leaving out.^[6]
• 1483 – a case excepted.^[6]
• 1617 – the exception proves the rule.^[6]
• 1862 – the exception, the unusual case.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Someone or something not included in or not following a general rule.
2. The act of leaving something out; exclusion.
3. (take exception) Objection or offence: she took exception to his remarks.
4. (law) A formal objection in court.

Word family

• exceptionless
• exceptionable

Related words

• except
• exceptional
• accept
• receive

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press