Etymologically
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expulsion

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Pronunciation

  • /ɪkˈspʌlʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English expulsioun, also expulcioun,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French expulsion or directly borrowed from Latin expulsiō (“a driving out”),[4][3][5] a noun of action formed from expulsus, the past participle of expellō (“to drive out”),[6][7][5][8] the source of expel.[5][3] The Middle English Dictionary and the OED give only the Latin source, and the OED merely compares the French word.[2][6] The Anglo-Norman form expulsioun, for expulsion or eviction, is recorded from 1435.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The driving of matter out of the body, a physiological sense: about 1400, in the Middle English translation of Lanfranc's Cirurgie.[6][4] Barnhart dates the word to before 1400.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English as a medical term; the old phrase virtue of expulsion, the body's power to expel, is now obsolete.[6][4] The sense of driving people out, banishment, is recorded from 1438, in a bishop's register,[2] and the OED's first record of the forcible driving out of a person, or turning out of an office or society, is in Fabyan's chronicle, before 1513.[6] Etymonline dates this sense to the late 15th century and names expulsion from a school or club as typical.[4] Johnson (1755) derived it from the verb expulse; he defined it as the act of driving out or the state of being driven out.[10] The derivative expulsionist, a supporter of expelling someone, is from the late 19th century.[11]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – the driving of matter out of the body, in Lanfranc's Cirurgie.[6][4]
  • 1435 – Anglo-Norman expulsioun, expulsion, eviction.[9]
  • 1438 – expulsion, banishment.[2]
  • before 1513 – the forcible driving out of a person; dismissal from an office or society.[6]
  • 1755 – Johnson: the act of expelling, and the state of being driven out.[10]
  • late 19th century – expulsionist.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act of expelling someone or something, or the state of being expelled: After his expulsion from the party he founded a rival group.[7][12][6]
  2. Formal removal of a person from a school, a society or an office.[7][6][4]
  3. The forcing of people out of a country or place; banishment.[2][7]
  4. The forcing out of a substance from the body.[6][2]

Word family

  • expulsive
  • nonexpulsion
  • reexpulsion
  • expel

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c 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 i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins