omission

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English omissioun, also omiscioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman omission, also borrowed from Middle French omission, and directly borrowed from Late Latin omissiō (“an omitting”),^[5][3][6][7] formed from omissus, the past participle of omittō (“to let go, disregard”), the source of omit.^[3][6][7][8] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1267, already for a failure to include something or to perform an action, and for the sin of omission;^[9] the OED dates its use in the moral sense to about 1300, and the Middle French word to about 1350, rare before the 16th century.^[5] The Latin noun, recorded from the 4th century, was very frequent in medieval penitential writing for the neglect of a duty, and the OED compares Italian omissione.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Failure to do something one ought to do, a neglect of duty: about 1400, in a metrical paraphrase of Rolle's Form of Living, which defines "sins of omiscioun" as the leaving of good deeds undone.^[5][2] Barnhart dates the word probably to 1348,^[7] and Etymonline to the mid-14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English as a moral and religious term: the failure to do a good deed or a duty, the "sin of omission", which is set against a sin of commission.^{[5][10][2][4]} The more neutral sense of leaving something or someone out, not including them, is recorded before 1440 in a Chancery petition, of bonds written without any omission or variance;^[5][2] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to the 1550s.^[7][3] From 1621 the word could also mean a thing that has been left out.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it first as neglect to do something.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – neglect of a duty; a sin of omission.^[5][2]
• before 1440 – the leaving out of a person or thing.^[5][2] Barnhart and Etymonline date this sense to the 1550s.^[7][3]
• 1621 – a person or thing that has been left out.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of leaving someone or something out, or the state of being left out: the omission of her name from the guest list.^[12][4][5]
2. Something left out or not done: The report has several glaring omissions.^[12][4][5]
3. Failure to do what one ought to do; neglect of duty, as in a sin of omission.^[4][5][10]

Word family

• nonomission

Related words

• omit
• commission
• mission

References

1. ^ a b 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 e f 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 e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins