liquidation

Etymology

The OED takes it as a noun of action from Late Latin liquidō (“to melt, make liquid; to liquidate”),^[2][3] formed on the past participle stem liquidātus,^[3] and compares French liquidation.^[2] The Oxford Dictionary of English derives it through French from liquider (“to liquidate”),^[4] and the Shorter Oxford gives either the French word or the English verb liquidate, comparing Medieval Latin liquidatio (“a making clear, explaining”).^[5] Dictionary.com analyses it as liquidate with the suffix -ion.^[6] The Latin verb comes from liquidus (“fluid, liquid, clear”),^[2][3] from liqueō (“to be fluid”),^[7][3] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *wleik- (“to flow, run”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Scots law, the working out and apportioning of the amounts of a debt: about 1575, in Balfour's Practicks,^[2] the 1570s in Etymonline.^[3] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1565–75.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a legal term for fixing the amount of a debt,^[2][3] a sense the Shorter Oxford dates from the mid 16th to the mid 18th century,^[5] although Black's law dictionary still gives it.^[8] From 1786 it meant the clearing off or settling of a debt.^[2] The financial senses of the verb liquidate are put down to Italian and French influence,^[5][4] and the winding up of a company, with the phrase to go into liquidation, is recorded from 1869.^[2][3] In 1925 an English translation of Trotsky's Whither England? used it for the abolition of something or the killing of unwanted people,^[2] a sense Etymonline traces to communist writing;^[3] the verb had taken this meaning a year earlier, possibly from Russian ликвидировать (likvidírovatʹ).^[3][4][1] A rare jocular sense, the taking of an alcoholic drink, appears in 1889,^[2] and Etymonline finds it in O. Henry.^[3] Chess players have used it since 1965 for clearing the board by exchanges to reach a winning position.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1575 – in law, the fixing and apportioning of the amounts of a debt.^[2][3]
• 1786 – the clearing off or settling of a debt.^[2]
• 1869 – the winding up of a company's affairs.^[2][3]
• 1889 – the drinking of alcohol (rare).^[2]
• 1925 – abolition or elimination; the killing of unwanted people.^[2][3]
• 1965 – in chess, simplification by the exchange of pieces.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The process of closing down a business by selling its assets to pay its debts, or the state of a firm so closed: After years of losses the shipyard went into liquidation.^[9][2][10]
2. The conversion of assets into cash, especially to settle debts.^[8][2]
3. The paying off or settling of a debt.^[2][8]
4. (law) The fixing of the exact amount of a debt or of damages that was uncertain before.^[8][2]
5. The elimination or destruction of something, or the killing of people seen as a threat.^[9][2]
6. (chess) The clearing of part of the board by exchanging pieces to reach a clearly winning position.^[2]

Word family

• nonliquidation
• preliquidation
• reliquidation

Related words

• liquid
• liquidate
• liquidator
• liquidity
• liquor

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 s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster