excrescence

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin excrēscentia (“abnormal growths”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} and Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also allow a route through Middle French excressance.^[9][10] The Latin word comes from the neuter plural of excrēscēns, the present participle of excrēscō (“to grow out”),^[4][10][9] formed from ex- (“out”) and crēscō (“to grow”),^[3][4][7] from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“to grow”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An abnormal growth on the body: probably before 1425, in a translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, according to Barnhart.^[9] Etymonline gives the sense "action of growing out" in the early 15th century,^[3] which Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates to the 15th century.^[10] The OED's first quotation is from 1533, in Bellenden's Livy.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word began with a growing-out as a process, including immoderate growth or overflow, a use that ended in the 18th century.^[2][6] For the thing grown, an abnormal or disfiguring outgrowth, the OED's first example (1578) is in Lyte's herbal, and Etymonline dates it to the 1570s.^[2][3] Excrescency in this sense is older, from the 1540s.^[3] It could also be neutral, a natural outgrowth or appendage, from 1633, but that is now somewhat rare.^[2][6] From the 17th century an excrescence could be figurative: an exuberant outburst or swagger (1629), and anything unsightly or superfluous added to something else (before 1680, in Butler).^[2][6]

Timeline

• probably before 1425 – an abnormal growth of the body.^[9]
• 1533 – the action of growing out; immoderate growth.^[2]
• 1578 – a disfiguring outgrowth on a plant or animal.^[2][3]
• 1629 – overblown pride; later, an exuberant outburst.^[2]
• 1633 – a natural outgrowth or appendage.^[2]
• before 1680 – figuratively, an unsightly addition.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An abnormal or disfiguring outgrowth on a body or plant, such as a wart.^[10][11][2]
2. An unsightly or unwanted addition: The new car park is an excrescence on the old square.^[6][2]
3. A natural outgrowth or appendage, such as hair (now rare).^[10][2][6]
4. (rare) An exuberant outburst; exuberance.^[2][6]
5. (obsolete, 1533–1753) The action of growing out; excessive growth.^[2][6][10]

Word family

• superexcrescence

Related words

• excrescency
• excrescent
• crescent
• increase

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins