Etymologically
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exclude

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Pronunciation

  • /ɪksˈkluːd/[1]

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

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