exclude

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English excluden,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin exclūdō (“to shut out, keep out, hinder”),^[5][6][4] from ex- (“out”) and claudō (“to shut, close”),^[5][6][7] the source of close.^[8][2] The same verb gave seclude and, through French, sluice.^[9][8] The noun exclusion was borrowed from Middle French or Latin before 1402.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To shut out or give no place to something immaterial, to prevent its existence or use: 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[5] Barnhart finds the gerund excludyng earlier, before 1349,^[4] and Etymonline dates the verb to the mid-14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

To leave out on purpose, to except from a list or category, is recorded from about 1400,^[5] and to shut people or animals out of a place from about 1440, in the York Mysteries.^[5] To debar someone from a right or privilege followed in 1495.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "to shut out; to hinder from entrance or admission", quoting Dryden on hedges and ditches that keep out cattle.^[10] In British use it also means to bar a pupil from school as a punishment.^[11] Weekley notes the historical Exclusionists, who sought to exclude the Duke of York, later James II, from the succession.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1349 – the gerund excludyng.^[4]
• 1382 – to give no place to something; to prevent.^[5][4]
• c. 1400 – to leave out, except.^[5]
• c. 1440 – to shut a person out of a place.^[5]
• 1495 – to debar from a right.^[5]
• 1598 – to keep out light, noise or air.^[5]
• 1625 – to be incompatible with.^[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To keep out; to prevent from entering a place or taking part in something; to bar: Visitors were excluded from the meeting.
2. To leave out deliberately or not take into account; to omit: The price excludes delivery.
3. To rule out a possibility: Doctors could not exclude an infection.
4. (British) To expel a pupil from a school, for a time or permanently, as a punishment.

Word family

• excludability
• excluder
• excludable
• unexcluding

Related words

• exclusion
• exclusive
• include
• conclude
• seclude
• preclude
• close
• sluice

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., 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. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray