Etymologically
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exit

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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
  • 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