export

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɛks.pɔːt/, /ˈɛks.pɔɹt/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin exportāre (“to carry out, send away”),^[2][3][4] from ex- (“out”) and portāre (“to carry”) (see port),^[2][3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to lead, pass over”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To carry out or away: about 1485, in the Digby Plays,^[2][5] a sense now obsolete.^[6]

Semantic evolution

To send goods out of one country to another for sale is first recorded in 1665.^[2][5][3] The noun, an exported article, is from 1690,^[2][5] and the action of exporting from 1804.^[5] Exporter is from 1691, in Locke.^[2] Figurative uses, as exporting ideas, are from 1760,^[5] and in computing, to send data out of a program for use elsewhere, from 1982.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1485 – to carry away.^[2][5]
• 1665 – to send goods abroad.^[2][5]
• 1690 – an exported article.^[2][5]
• 1982 – in computing.^[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To send goods or services to another country for sale.
2. To spread or introduce ideas or customs abroad.
3. (computing) To transfer data to another program or format.

Noun

1. Something exported; a commodity sold abroad.
2. The act of exporting.

Word family

• exportability
• exportable
• exporter
• reexport
• unexported
• exportation

Related words

• import
• port
• portable
• transport
• report
• deport

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press