expression

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪkˈspreʃ.ən/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English expressioun,^[2][3] from Old French expression^[4] or directly from Latin expressiō (“a pressing out; in Late Latin, vividness, expression”),^[2][3][5] a noun of action from expressus, past participle of exprimere “to press out; to represent, describe”,^[2][3] the source of express.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of pressing out: the early 15th century in Etymonline,^[2] late Middle English in SOED.^[4] The OED's first literal example is from 1594.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The manifesting of feelings or qualities is from 1460,^[6] and putting into words from the mid-15th century.^[2] Beyond expression is from 1624,^[6] a sign or token of a feeling from 1634,^[6] and an action or creation that expresses feelings from the 1620s.^[2] The look on a face is from 1774,^[2] and a word or phrase is from the 17th century in SOED.^[4] In mathematics, a quantity stated in symbols, as √x, is a later sense.^[7][8]

Timeline

• early 15th century – a pressing out.^[2]
• 1460 – the manifesting of feelings.^[6]
• mid-15th century – putting into words.^[2]
• 1620s – an expressive action.^[2]
• 1774 – a facial expression.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The act of expressing thoughts or feelings in words, art, music or movement.
2. A look on someone's face that shows a feeling.
3. A word or phrase: an old-fashioned expression.
4. Feeling or quality conveyed in a performance.
5. (mathematics) A combination of symbols representing a quantity or operation.
6. (genetics) The appearance in an organism of a characteristic controlled by a gene.

Word family

• expressional
• expressionless
• expressionlessly
• reexpression
• superexpression
• express
• expressive
• expressionism

Related words

• press
• impression

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins