excrement

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin excrēmentum (“that which is sifted out; refuse”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} or, in the OED's view, borrowed from French excrément, from the Latin;^[7] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English allow either source.^[8][9][10] The Latin noun is formed from excrē-, the stem of excrētus, past participle of excernō (“to sift out, discharge”), with the suffix -mentum.^{[2][3][5][11]} The verb is formed from ex- (“out”) and cernō (“to sift, separate”),^[2][6][3] from Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sieve”).^[2] Excrete comes from the same past participle.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Waste matter discharged from the bowels: Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it to 1533, in Sir Thomas Elyot's Castel of Helth,^[3][5] while the OED's first record is the 1541 edition of the same book.^[7] Etymonline dates it to the 1530s.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Ayto explains that the Latin word for "what is sifted out" was applied in a figurative way to anything the body gives out.^[6] In English it at first meant any bodily secretion, such as sweat, mucus, saliva or milk, as well as faeces;^[6][2][7] this general sense lasted until the mid-18th century, when the narrower sense "faeces" took over.^[6][2] Johnson (1755) still defined it as whatever is thrown out of the body as useless or corrupt.^[12] From 1576 to 1698 the plural also meant the dregs or refuse left after sifting or refining.^[7][5][8] From 1606 to 1751 botanists used it for substances given out by plants.^[7] As a term of abuse for a worthless person it is recorded from 1561.^[7] A verb excrement, to void excrement, is recorded once, in 1632.^[7]

Timeline

• 1533 – waste discharged from the bowels, in Elyot's Castel of Helth.^[3][5] The OED's first record is from the 1541 edition.^[7]
• 1561 – a worthless person, as a term of abuse.^[7]
• 1565 – any substance excreted by the body, such as sweat or mucus.^[7]
• 1576 – dregs, refuse (obsolete by 1698).^[7]
• 1606 – a substance given out by a plant (obsolete by 1751).^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Waste matter discharged from the bowels; faeces: The path was fouled with dog excrement.^[13][5][7]
2. Any waste matter given out by the body; excreta.^[13][7]
3. A worthless or contemptible person, as a term of abuse.^[7]
4. (obsolete, 1576–1698) Dregs or refuse.^[5][7][8]

Word family

• excremental
• excrementitious

Related words

• excreta
• excrete
• certain
• discern
• excrescence

Usage notes

A separate obsolete word excrement, an outgrowth such as hair, nails or feathers, or growth and increase, came from Latin excrēscō (“to grow out”), the source of excrescence; it was used from about 1550 to 1708, first by Shakespeare in Love's Labour's Lost (1598) for the literal sense.^[7][9][5] Ayto notes that increment, from Latin crēscō (“to grow”), is not related to excrement.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins