exclamation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English exclamacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin exclāmātiō (“a loud calling or crying out”).^{[3][4][2][5][6]} The OED and Klein take it from French exclamation, itself from the Latin noun,^[7][8] and the Shorter Oxford allows either source.^[9] The Latin word is a noun of action from the past participle of exclāmō (“to cry out loud”),^[3][7][6] which is formed from ex- (“out”) and clāmō (“to cry, shout, call”), from Proto-Indo-European *kele- (“to shout”).^[3] The verb exclaim was formed later, in the 1560s.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A crying out aloud: 1382, in the prologue to Mark in the early Wycliffite Bible, "the vois of a prophetis exclamacioun".^[7][2] In Latin it was also a term of rhetoric.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Besides the loud expression of pain, anger or surprise, the word soon meant a loud complaint or protest, from 1430 in Lydgate,^[7] and the Middle English Dictionary records it for a complaint or lament.^[2] It became a term of rhetoric in 1552 and of grammar, for an interjection, in 1862.^[7] The punctuation mark was first called a note of exclamation (1650s);^[3][7] Shakespeare has note of admiration (1611), and the names exclamation point (1824), shriek-mark (1864) and exclamation mark (1926) followed.^[3] The mark itself is said to have arisen among Italian writers about 1400, as Latin io (“a cry of joy or triumph”) written with the i above the o.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "vehement outcry; clamour; outrageous vociferation".^[10]

Timeline

• 1382 – a crying out aloud; an outcry.^[7][2] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century.^[3]
• 1430 – a loud complaint or protest.^[7]
• 1552 – rhetoric: an emphatic exclamation as a figure of speech.^[7]
• 1602 – a formal declaration, proclamation (obsolete by 1631).^[7]
• 1611 – note of admiration, the punctuation mark, in Shakespeare.^[3]
• 1656 – note of exclamation, point of exclamation.^[7][3]
• 1824 – exclamation point.^[3]
• 1862 – grammar: an interjection.^[7]
• 1926 – exclamation mark.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sudden, loud or emphatic cry or remark expressing strong feeling: She let out an exclamation of surprise.^[11][4][7]
2. The act of exclaiming.^[11][4][7]
3. A loud complaint or protest.^[4][7]
4. (grammar) An interjection.^[7][11]

Word family

• exclamational
• exclamation point

Related words

• acclaim
• claim
• clamor
• clamour
• declaim
• exclamatory
• exclaim
• proclaim
• reclaim

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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