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Etymology and origin of the English word out

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
725
Inherited from
Old English ut via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *ud
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Old English ut
English out
Derivations

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈäʊ̯t/[1]
  • US: /ˈaʊ̯t/, /ˈæʊ̯t/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English out, also oute,[2][3] which merged two Old English words that were already confused in Old English: inherited from Old English ūt (“out”) and ūte (“outside”).[3] The first is from Proto-Germanic *ūt,[4][5] the second from *ūtai with an adverbial suffix.[1][3] It is cognate with Old Frisian ūt, Old Saxon ūt, Middle Dutch uut, Dutch uit, Old High German ūz, German aus, Old Norse út, Swedish ut, Danish ud and Gothic 𐌿𐍄 (ūt).[3][6][5] Kroonen takes the Germanic adverb straight from Proto-Indo-European *ud (“up, out”), with the vowel lengthened because it stood alone as a word;[5] the same root gave Latin usque (“all the way, continuously”) and Old Irish ud- (“out”).[6][4] An old comparative of the adverb survives in utter "complete" and in utmost.[7] The verb continues ūtian (“to expel, put out”),[4][8][9] though the OED thinks it may have been formed again in late Middle English;[3] the adjective, noun and preposition were made in English from the adverb.[3][6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Away from the inside or from a central point; outward: Old English, in the translation of Orosius.[3] Barnhart dates Old English ūt to before 725, and the Middle English adverb, "away, from, forth", to Layamon, probably before 1200.[6]

Semantic evolution

From about 1300 out also meant "to the end, completely"; about 1400 it came to mean "so as to be no longer burning".[4] It was used of being beyond bounds in the early 15th century, of coming into public notice from the 1540s, and of being away from home or out of office from about 1600.[4] As a preposition, "out of, away from", it is recorded from about 1250.[6][4] The adjective meant "outer, external" before 1300, in The Owl and the Nightingale, a sense now rare.[3] The sporting sense "no longer in the game" appears in 1609, first in cricket, and "out of fashion" in Pepys's diary (1660);[6] "unconscious" came from boxing in 1898.[4] The noun out is recorded from the 1620s;[3][6] in baseball the putting out of a player is from 1860, and "a way out, an excuse" from Ring Lardner (1919).[6][4] The verb, "to expel", survived from Old English; about 1390 it also came to mean "to reveal, disclose".[3][4] In the late 20th century out was used of being open about one's homosexuality (1973) and as a verb for exposing someone else's (1990);[3][4] "to come out" in this sense is from 1968.[4] In radio, out marks the end of a message, from 1950.[4]

Timeline

  • before 725 – adverb, Old English ūt.[6]
  • c. 1250 – preposition, out of, away from.[6][4]
  • before 1300 – adjective, outer, external.[3]
  • c. 1300 – to the end, completely.[4]
  • c. 1390 – verb, to reveal, disclose.[3][4]
  • c. 1600 – out of office; away from home.[4]
  • 1609 – out of the game, first in cricket.[6]
  • 1660 – out of fashion, in Pepys's diary.[6]
  • 1860 – noun, an out in baseball.[6][4]
  • 1898 – unconscious, in boxing.[4]
  • 1919 – noun, a way out, an excuse.[6][4]
  • 1973 – adjective, open about one's homosexuality.[3]
  • 1990 – verb, to expose someone's homosexuality.[3][4]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Away from the inside; at or to a point beyond the limits of a place; outside: The children ran out into the yard.[10][11][3]
  2. Away from home or one's usual place: She's out for the evening.[4][3]
  3. Into view or public knowledge: The news is out.[10][4]
  4. Out of consciousness: He passed out.[10]
  5. To the end; completely, so as to remove or obliterate: to cross out a word.[10][4]
  6. So as to be no longer burning: The fire went out.[4]

Preposition

  1. Out of; through to the outside of: She looked out the window.[4][6]

Adjective

  1. No longer in play, or no longer in office: The batter is out.[4][6]
  2. Not in fashion.[3][4]
  3. Unconscious.[4]
  4. Open about being homosexual or about one's sexual or gender identity.[3][4]
  5. (rare) Outer, external.[3]

Noun

  1. In baseball, the act of putting a batter or runner out.[4][6]
  2. A way of escape; an excuse.[4][6]
  3. the outs: those not in office.[4]

Verb

  1. To expose someone as homosexual.[3][4]
  2. To reveal or disclose.[3][4]
  3. To expel or get rid of.[3]

Word family

  • out-of-bounds
  • all-out
  • campout
  • cookout
  • fallout
  • flunkout
  • freezeout

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster

Derived terms

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Out.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/out. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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