exit

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈek.sɪt/, /ˈeɡ.zɪt/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin exit (“he or she goes out”), the third person singular present of exīre (“to go out”),^[2][3][4] from ex- (“out”) and īre (“to go”),^[2][3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *ei- (“to go”).^[3] The noun's senses of a going out and a way out also come from Latin exitus (“a going out”), from exīre.^[2][5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stage direction: as a Latin word in English plays about 1485, in the Digby Plays (the plural exeunt), and as an English word in 1538, in a play by John Bale.^[6][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The departure of a player from the stage is in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost (1588),^[2][6] and departure from life, death, from 1661.^[6] A going out or departure from any place is from before 1652,^[2] and a way out or outlet from 1659 (1695 in the OED for a door of a public building).^[2][6] The verb, to make one's exit, is from 1607.^[6][4] To leave a building or vehicle is from 1976.^[6] The exit poll is attested by 1980.^[3] Fowler noted that exit is a singular verb whose plural is exeunt.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1485 – exeunt, in the Digby Plays.^[2]
• 1538 – exit, a stage direction.^[2]
• 1588 – leaving the stage.^[6]
• 1607 – the verb.^[6]
• 1659 – a way out.^[2]
• 1661 – death.^[6]
• 1980 – exit poll.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A way out of a building, room or vehicle.
2. The act of going out or leaving.
3. An actor's departure from the stage.
4. (euphemistic) Death.

Verb

1. To go out or leave.

Word family

• exitless
• exit poll

Related words

• issue
• exeunt
• ambition
• itinerary
• transit

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press