expel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English expellen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin expellō (“to drive out, drive away”),^{[5][6][7][8][9]} formed from ex- (“out”) and pellō (“to drive, thrust”).^[5][6][4][8] Etymonline, after Watkins, traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to thrust, strike, drive”).^[6][4] The OED compares compel, and notes that Old French had espellir and in the 15th century expeller.^[5] The same Latin verb gives expulsion and pulse.^[8][9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the body, to cast out matter from within: about 1385, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale,^[5][7] which has the form expelle once.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the verb was used of driving out enemies and invaders, exorcising the Devil and banishing people from a town or country.^[2] The OED's first record for driving a person out of a place is from Caxton in 1490;^[5] from 1534 it was used of putting someone out of a society or community.^[5] The school sense, making a pupil leave as a punishment, is found in the 1640s by Etymonline;^[6] the OED's first record is from 1717, in Defoe.^[5] From 1669 the verb was used of a material thing driven out by force, such as a bullet from a gun.^[5] Two senses died out: to reject or refuse (1575–1742) and, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, to keep out.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "to drive out; to force away".^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1385 – of the body, to cast out matter.^[5][7]
• 1490 – to drive a person out of a place, to banish.^[5]
• 1534 – to turn someone out of a society or community.^[5]
• 1575 – to reject or refuse (obsolete by 1742).^[5]
• 1640s – to make a pupil leave a school.^[6] The OED's first quotation for it is from Defoe, 1717.^[5]
• 1669 – to drive something out by mechanical force.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To force a pupil or member to leave a school, club or other organization: Two students were expelled for cheating.^[12][3][5]
2. To drive or force out, especially from a place or country; to banish.^[12][3][5]
3. To force something out of a container or out of the body: He expelled the air from his lungs.^[3][5][13]

Word family

• expellable
• expeller
• unexpelled
• expellee
• reexpel

Related words

• expulsion
• compel
• dispel
• impel
• propel
• repel
• pulse
• appeal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press