omit

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English omitten, also ommitten,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin omittō (“to let go, lay aside, disregard, neglect”),^[4][5][3][2] formed from ob- and mittō (“to send, let go”).^[4][3][6][7] Barnhart explains that the prefix took the form om- before m, and that the double m was later simplified before the double t;^[3] Etymonline takes the prefix as perhaps intensive here.^[5] The OED compares French omettre, recorded from 1337, and Italian omettere.^[4] The noun omission is recorded slightly earlier.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To fail to perform, to leave undone, to neglect: about 1422, in Hoccleve's Ars Sciendi Mori.^[4][2][3] Barnhart also finds the form omitten probably before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense now most usual, to leave out or pass over, is recorded from 1439, in the Rolls of Parliament.^[4][2] With an infinitive, "to fail to do something", it dates from 1529.^[4] Closer to the Latin, it also meant to let go, give up or abandon, from 1531 to 1822, and to disregard, from 1589 to 1635.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave two senses, "to leave out; not to mention" and "to neglect to practise".^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1422 – to fail to perform, to leave undone.^[4][2]
• 1439 – to leave out, pass over, exclude.^[4][2]
• 1529 – with an infinitive, to fail or neglect to do something.^[4]
• 1531 – to let go, give up, abandon (obsolete by 1822).^[4]
• 1589 – to disregard (obsolete by 1635).^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To leave out or exclude, on purpose or by oversight: The editor omitted the last paragraph.^{[9][10][4][11]}
2. To fail to do something; to neglect: She omitted to lock the back door.^[9][4][11]

Word family

• omitter
• unomitted

Related words

• omission
• mission
• emit
• admit
• commit
• intermit

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press