importation

Etymology

It is formed from English import + -ation.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The OED compares Medieval Latin importatio, recorded before 1536, and the older noun import and exportation.^[2] The verb import comes from Middle French importer and Latin importō (“to bring in, carry in”),^[2] formed from in- (“in, into”) and portō (“to carry”).^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bringing in of goods from another country for use or sale: before 1558, in a letter of William Paget.^[2][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to about 1558,^[4] while Etymonline gives about 1600.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the trade sense the word widened to the bringing in of anything from another place or context (1616).^[2][8] In concrete use it named something imported, such as a commodity (1656),^[2][5] and later a person who has come from elsewhere to live or work, such as a sports player brought from abroad (1787).^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as the act or practice of bringing things into a country from abroad, quoting Bacon on importation and exportation.^[9] In logic it has named, since Bertrand Russell's Principles of Mathematics (1903), the rule that if one proposition implies that a second implies a third, the first two together imply the third.^[2][5]

Timeline

• before 1558 – the importing of goods from another country.^[2]
• 1616 – the bringing in of something from another place or context.^[2]
• 1656 – something imported, especially a commodity.^[2]
• 1787 – a person who has come from another country or region; an immigrant.^[2]
• 1903 – in logic, a rule of inference.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or business of importing goods or services from another country: the importation of steel from Korea.^[10][4][2]
2. The bringing in of anything from an outside source: the importation of foreign workers.^[4][2]
3. Something imported; an import.^[10][4][2]
4. A person brought in from another country or region, such as a sports player.^[2]
5. (logic) The inference that if one proposition implies that a second implies a third, the first two together imply the third.^[2][5]

Word family

• nonimportation
• overimportation

Related words

• import
• export
• exportation
• portable
• transport

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins