excommunicate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English excommunicaten,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Late Latin excommūnicātus,^[5][6][4][7] the past participle of excommūnicō (“to put out of the community; in Church use, to expel from communion”).^[6][5][8] The Latin verb is formed from ex- (“out”) and commūnis (“common”),^[8][5][9] on the analogy of commūnicō (“to share, communicate”),^[8][5][9] the source of communicate.^[10] Weekley notes that French excommunier is much earlier.^[11] The adjective and the noun come from the same participle.^[8][4][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put out of the Church's communion: probably before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[5][2] with the line "He excommunicate Anastasius themperour".^[2] Etymonline has the early 15th century.^[6] The OED's first quotation is Tyndale's New Testament of 1526, at John 16,^[8] which Weekley quotes as "They shall excommunicat you".^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its ecclesiastical core: exclusion, by a formal sentence, from the sacraments or from all fellowship with the Church's members.^[6][8] The transferred sense, shutting a person out of any group, is recorded from 1602, in S. Rowlands.^[8][3] Milton's Areopagitica (1644) used it once for forbidding an action under pain of excommunication.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as ejecting a person from the communion of the visible Church.^[13] The adjective had a special use in Matthew's Bible (1551), at Joshua 6:18, for things devoted to destruction.^[8] The noun excommunication is recorded from 1459, in the Paston Letters.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1425 – to exclude from the communion of the Church.^[5][2]
• 1521 – adjective, excommunicated.^[4] The OED's first record is of 1526, in Tyndale.^[8]
• 1551 – adjective, of things, devoted to destruction.^[8]
• 1562 – noun, an excommunicated person.^[8]
• 1602 – to shut out of a group or society, by extension.^[8]
• 1644 – to forbid an action under pain of excommunication (obsolete).^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut a person off from communion with a church or from its sacraments, by an official sentence.^{[4][3][14][8]}
2. To shut out of a group or its activities, by or as if by decree: The guild excommunicated the printer for undercutting its prices.^[3][8]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Having been excommunicated.^{[8][3][14][4]}

Noun

1. An excommunicated person.^{[8][3][14][4]}

Word family

• excommunicative
• excommunicator
• unexcommunicated
• excommunication
• excommunicant
• excommunicable

Related words

• communicate
• common
• communion

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins