Etymologically
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exhaust

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:15. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɪɡˈzɔːst/[1]
  • US: /ɪɡˈzɔst/, /ɪɡˈzɑst/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin exhaustus, the past participle of exhauriō (“to draw off, take away, use up, empty”),[2][3][4][5] from ex- (“out, off”) and hauriō (“to draw (water), drain”).[2][6][7] Barnhart thinks the verb developed from the earlier English past participle exhaust.[3] Klein, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster link the Latin verb with Ancient Greek ἐξαύω (exaúō, “to take out”) and Old Norse ausa (“to scoop, sprinkle”).[8][3][9] The noun is from the English verb.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a past participle, exhausted, in various senses of the verb: 1524, in a letter of Cardinal Wolsey.[5] The verb is first recorded as "to draw off or out" in 1540, in an Act of Henry VIII,[5] and as "to use up completely" in 1541, in Thomas Elyot's Castel of Helthe;[5] Barnhart dates this use to 1533 and Merriam-Webster gives 1531.[5][3][9]

Semantic evolution

The literal idea of drawing something off or out was extended to emptying a container (1614) and to treating a subject so thoroughly that nothing is left to say (1705, in Addison).[5] From 1631 one could exhaust a person, a kingdom or the soil, draining it of strength or resources, and so the word came to mean tiring someone out;[5] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1630s.[5][2] Johnson (1755) defined it first as to drain or to diminish by draining.[10] Weekley compares French épuiser, formed in the same way from puits (“well”).[11] The steam engine gave the noun in 1848, for the escape of used steam from the cylinder, and the internal-combustion engine its use for waste gases and the pipe that carries them, by 1896.[5][2] The verb exhaust of steam escaping from the cylinder dates from 1851, and of an engine giving off gases from 1908, originally in the United States.[5]

Timeline

  • 1524 – exhaust as past participle, exhausted (obsolete by 1708).[5]
  • 1531 – Merriam-Webster's first date for the verb.[9]
  • 1533 – to use up, consume, in Elyot.[3]
  • 1540 – to draw off or out.[5]
  • 1614 – to empty by drawing off the contents.[5]
  • 1631 – to drain of strength or resources, to tire out.[5][2]
  • 1705 – to treat a subject completely.[5]
  • 1848 – noun, the escape of steam from an engine's cylinder.[5][2][9]
  • 1896 – noun, the waste gases of an internal-combustion engine.[5][2]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To make someone very tired; to drain of energy: The long climb exhausted the hikers.
  2. To use up a supply or resource completely: They had exhausted their savings.
  3. To deal with a subject so fully that nothing more can be said about it.
  4. To draw out or let out the contents of something; to empty a container, especially of air.
  5. Of an engine or gas: to discharge or escape as waste.

Noun

  1. The waste gases or steam expelled from an engine.
  2. The pipe or system through which these gases escape; an exhaust pipe.
  3. The escape of such gases, or an apparatus such as a fan that draws out air or fumes.

Word family

  • exhauster
  • exhaustibility
  • exhaustible
  • exhaustingly
  • exhausting
  • exhaustion
  • exhaustive
  • inexhaustible

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  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. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray