expiation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English expiacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin expiātiō (“satisfaction, atonement”),^[2][5][4][6] a noun of action from expiō (“to make amends for, atone for; purge by sacrifice”),^[2][5][6] from ex- (“completely”) and piō (“to propitiate, appease”), from pius (“faithful, loyal, devout”), the source of pious.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Atonement for sin, and a religious ceremony of atonement observed by the Jews: before 1475, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon, which speaks of the expiacion or clenesynge of their synne.^[4] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century and Dictionary.com to 1375–1425,^[2][7] while the OED's first record is from 1482, in the Monk of Evesham.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the sense of making amends for a wrong.^[5][3] In the 16th century it spread from the act to the means of atonement, a deed or rite done for that purpose (about 1548, in Bale),^[5] and to the ceremonial purifying of guilt or pollution (1532, in More).^[5] A translation of Calvin in 1561 tied it to sacrifice: The sacrifice of expiation is that which tendeth to appease the wrath of God.^[2] From the 17th and 18th centuries it could also mean turning aside a portended evil by religious means, as a rite or an act.^[5] Blount's Glossographia (1674) has the Fast or Feast of Expiation for the Jewish ceremony held on the tenth of Tisri.^[5] Johnson (1755) kept the two main senses, the act of atoning and the means of atoning, and quoted Milton's shadowy expiations weak.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1475 – atonement for sin; a Jewish ceremony of atonement.^[4] The OED first records the action of atoning in 1482.^[5]
• 1532 – ceremonial purification from guilt or pollution.^[5]
• c. 1548 – the means of atonement; a rite performed to atone.^[5]
• before 1627 – a rite intended to avert a portended evil.^[5]
• 1674 – Fast or Feast of Expiation.^[5]
• 1675 – propitiation of a deity (obsolete, rare).^[5]
• 1740 – the averting of a portended evil by religious means.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of making atonement for a crime or sin; the removal of guilt by suffering or penalty: He gave away his fortune in expiation of his crimes.^[3][9][5]
2. The means by which atonement is made; an act or rite done for that purpose.^[3][9][5]
3. The ceremonial purification of guilt or pollution.^[5][10]
4. The averting of a portended evil by religious means, or a rite meant to do so.^[5]

Word family

• expiatory
• expiational

Related words

• expiate
• pious

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d 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)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press