expiry

Etymology

It is formed from English expire + -y.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The verb is from French expirer,^[2] from Latin exspīrō (“to breathe out; to breathe one's last, die”), formed from ex- (“out”) and spīrō (“to breathe”).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The end or close of a period of time: 1752, in J. Louthian's Form of Process (2nd edition).^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Etymonline also give 1752,^[3][5] and Dictionary.com dates it 1745–55.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From 1807 the word was used of the end of anything that lasts a fixed time, such as a contract or a truce.^[2] The sense "dying, death", which the OED calls rare, is recorded from 1790, in a letter of Burns,^[2][5] and was also used figuratively for destruction or extinction.^[2][3] Wright's dialect dictionary listed it as a Scottish word for expiration or termination, quoting the Monthly Magazine of 1798 and a novel by Scott of 1824.^[7] The Oxford Dictionary of English labels the main sense British and the sense "death" archaic.^[8]

Timeline

• 1752 – the end of a period of time.^[2][3][5]
• 1790 – death; also figuratively, extinction (rare).^[2][5]
• 1807 – the end of a contract, truce or other arrangement with a fixed term.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The end of the period for which something is valid, such as a contract, lease or licence: Renew your passport well before its expiry.^{[9][8][10][2]}
2. As a modifier, especially in expiry date: the date after which something is no longer valid or should not be used.^[9][8]
3. The end of a fixed period of time.^[8][2]
4. (archaic) Death.^[8][10][2]

Word family

• nonexpiry

Related words

• expiration
• expire
• spirit
• respire
• inspire

Usage notes

The Oxford Dictionary of English labels the sense "end of validity" British,^[8] while Merriam-Webster Unabridged defines the word by expiration.^[3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
8. ^ a b c d e f Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt