expire

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English expiren,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French expirer,^[5][6][7][8] which Barnhart and Merriam-Webster call Middle French,^[3][4] from Latin exspīrō (“to breathe out; to breathe one's last, die”), also expīrō,^[3][9][6] formed from ex- (“out”) and spīrō (“to breathe”).^[9][6][10] Merriam-Webster and the MED allow that the English verb also came directly from Latin.^[4][2] Etymonline dates the Old French verb, already meaning "expire, elapse", to the 12th century,^[6] and the Anglo-Norman espirer, recorded from 1267, meant both to breathe out and to come to an end.^[11] The Latin verb belongs with spirit.^[6][3][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To breathe one's last, to die: before 1400, in the Coventry mystery plays,^[9] and about 1420 in Lydgate's Troy Book.^[2][3] Barnhart's first record is from 1419, in the Proceedings of the Privy Council, for becoming void through lapse of time.^[3]

Semantic evolution

"Die" is the older sense in English,^[6][13] and Weekley notes that the verb was at first transitive, as in expiring one's soul or last breath;^[13] the OED records that use from about 1450 to 1718.^[9][2] From the Latin figurative sense "come to an end",^[6] the verb was used of a period of time reaching its close (from 1455) and of a law, truce or bond lapsing (from 1477).^[9] The literal "breathe out" came only in 1590, in Spenser's Faerie Queene;^[9][3][6] between 1606 and 1807 it could also mean to give off vapour or, of a volcano, to throw out flames.^[9] Johnson (1755) gave "to breathe out" as the first sense of the transitive verb.^[14] Hoad notes that expiry first meant dying, in the 18th century, and only in the 19th termination;^[15] expiration meant vapour or breath before 1425 and the end of something from 1562.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1400 – to die.^[9]
• 1419 – to become void through lapse of time.^[3]
• c. 1450 – transitive, to breathe out the soul at death (obsolete by 1718).^[9][2]
• 1455 – of a period of time, to come to an end.^[9]
• 1477 – of a law, truce or bond, to lapse.^[9]
• 1590 – to breathe out air, in Spenser.^[9][3]
• 1595 – of a fire, to die out.^[9]
• 1612 – noun expire, expiry (obsolete by 1646).^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To come to an end; of a contract, licence or document, to stop being valid after a fixed time: Her passport expires next spring.^[16][4][9]
2. (formal) To die.^[16][4][9]
3. To breathe out; to exhale.^[16][4][9]
4. Of a fire, to die out.^[9][4]

Word family

• expirer
• expiringly
• expiry

Related words

• expiration
• inspire
• respiration
• respire
• spirit

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins