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expression

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 23:54. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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