exorcism

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English exorcisme,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Late Latin exorcismus,^[5][6][7][8] and partly borrowed from Old French exorcisme.^[2][4][3] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ἐξορκισμός (exorkismós, “administration of an oath”), which in Church Greek meant exorcism,^[6][9][5] from ἐξορκίζω (exorkízō, “to bind by oath, to exorcise”),^[6][5] formed from ἐκ (ek, “out of”) and ὁρκίζω (horkízō, “to make someone swear”), from ὅρκος (hórkos, “oath”).^[6][8] The origin of hórkos is uncertain: Etymonline reports Beekes's suggestion of a link with ἕρκος (hérkos, “fence”), the oath being the bounds the swearer takes on, and notes that not all scholars accept it.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The calling up or driving out of spirits: the Middle English Dictionary's first record is from 1395, in the Wycliffite Twelve Conclusions, which call exorcisms and blessings in church the practice of necromancy rather than of theology.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from Cleanness (c. 1400, perhaps composed c. 1380),^[5] where the Middle English Dictionary reads the word instead as a separate noun meaning "exorcist, conjurer".^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century,^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Hoad to the 14th.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word covered both raising spirits and expelling them.^[2] The sense of conjuring spirits up, as in Lydgate's Troy Book (1430), died out in the mid-17th century,^[5][2] leaving the driving out of an evil spirit by prayer or ritual.^[5][7] From the mid-16th century it also meant the formula used in exorcizing,^[5] and Philemon Holland's Pliny (1601) used it once for a curse or oath.^[5] Etymonline notes that exorcization was used in the same sense earlier, from the late 14th century.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as the form of adjuration or religious ceremony by which evil spirits are driven away, quoting Shakespeare.^[10] According to Simpson and Roud, the exorcism of possessed people was always left to specialist clergy, but the exorcism of ghosts from haunted houses has often been asked for and is a common theme of local legends.^[11]

Timeline

• 1395 – the calling up or driving out of spirits.^[2]
• c. 1400 – the expelling of an evil spirit by adjuration or rites.^[5]
• 1430 – the calling up of spirits, conjuration (obsolete by 1652).^[5]
• c. 1550 – a formula used in exorcizing.^[5]
• 1601 – an imprecatory oath (obsolete).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or practice of driving out an evil spirit from a person or place by prayer, ritual or adjuration; an instance of this: The bishop authorised an exorcism of the old rectory.^[3][5][7]
2. A spell or formula said when exorcizing.^[3][5]
3. (obsolete, 1430–1652) The conjuration or calling up of spirits.^[3][5]

Word family

• exorcist

Related words

• exorcise

Usage notes

The OED notes that Johnson and nearly all later dictionaries stress this word and its relatives on the first syllable, but that stress on the second is often heard, especially in exorcize, which might otherwise be confused with exercise.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
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. ^ Simpson, Jacqueline; Roud, Steve (2000), A Dictionary of English Folklore, Oxford: Oxford University Press