lotion

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English locion, also spelt loscion,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French lotion,^[4][3][5][6] or directly borrowed from Latin lōtiō (“a washing”);^[7][2][8] the OED, in its 2015 revision, takes it as borrowed only from Latin, and compares Middle French locion, the act of washing the body, recorded from the 14th century.^[7] The Latin noun is formed from lōtus, a popular form of lautus, the past participle of lavō (“to wash”),^[3][5][4][9] the source of lave.^[3][10] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace the verb to Proto-Indo-European *leue- (“to wash”).^[5][4] In post-classical Latin written in Britain, the noun also meant water used for washing (13th century).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A liquid preparation applied to the skin or another part of the body as medicine: Barnhart finds the form loscion before 1400 in Lanfranc's Science of Surgery,^[3] Etymonline dates it to about 1400,^[5] and the OED's first record is from about 1425.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the early 16th century to the late 18th the word also meant the action of washing the body, especially as a religious rite,^[7][8] and in the Church the ceremonial washing of the priest's hands or of the chalice (1529–1670).^[7] In 17th- to 19th-century chemistry and medicine it was the purifying of a mineral or a medicine by washing it in water.^[7] The spelling lotion, after French and Latin, replaced loscion from 1549.^[3] Johnson (1755) still described a lotion as a medicine of watery liquids for washing a part of the body.^[11] In later use the word came to mean especially a cosmetic preparation, often an emulsion, for the face and hands.^[7][12] From the 1860s it was also slang for alcoholic drink,^[7][13] a use the English Dialect Dictionary records in West Yorkshire and south-east Lincolnshire.^[14] The verb lotion, to apply lotion to the skin, is a conversion of the noun first recorded before 1777;^[7] Etymonline dates it to 1817, with a single earlier use in 1768.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1400 – loscion, in Lanfranc's Science of Surgery.^[3]
• c. 1425 – a liquid preparation applied to the body.^[7]
• before 1513 – the act of washing the body; ablution (obsolete by 1797).^[7]
• 1529 – the ceremonial washing of the celebrant's hands or of the chalice (obsolete by 1670).^[7]
• 1549 – the spelling lotion.^[3]
• 1617 – the purifying of minerals or medicines by washing (obsolete by 1887).^[7]
• before 1777 – verb, to apply lotion to the skin.^[7]
• 1864 – slang, alcoholic drink.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A liquid preparation, often an emulsion, put on the skin for cosmetic or medicinal purposes: She rubbed some sun lotion on her shoulders.^[6][12][7]
2. (slang, now rare) Alcoholic drink.^[7][13]
3. (obsolete) The act of washing the body; ablution.^[7][8][12]

Verb

1. To apply lotion to the skin or hair.^[7][5]

Related words

• lave
• lavatory
• launder
• lather
• lye
• ablution
• deluge

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)