outcry

Etymology

It is formed from English out- + cry,^[2][3][4][5] after the Middle English phrasal verb crien out, to cry out.^[5][2] The verb is Middle English outcrien, formed in the same way from the prefix and the verb.^[5][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of crying out; a shout, a noise or an uproar, especially an accusing clamour: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[2] Etymonline dates the noun to the mid-14th century^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1350–1400.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The verb is recorded from about 1390, in Chaucer's Prioress's Tale, meaning to cry out;^[2] the sense to cry louder than someone, to shout them down, follows in 1530, in Palsgrave.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a cry of vehemence or distress, a clamour, quoting Spenser on Ireland.^[7] In rhetoric an outcry was, for a few years from 1587, a set exclamation of joy, sorrow or wonder, an ecphonesis.^[2] From about 1604 the noun also meant a sale by auction, a sense the OED now calls chiefly American regional;^[2] the English Dialect Dictionary records it for Scotland and the North of England, citing Grose in 1790,^[8] and the verb meant to sell by auction in the laws of Barbados of 1676.^[2] The sense of a strong public protest, now the main one, is recorded by the OED from 1834, in the North American Review,^[2] although Etymonline finds this figurative sense only by 1911, in George Bernard Shaw.^[4] In commerce, open outcry is a way of trading in which dealers shout out their bids and offers.^[9]

Timeline

• before 1382 – noun, a crying out, a clamour or uproar.^[2]
• c. 1390 – verb, to cry out.^[2]
• 1530 – verb, to cry louder than, to shout down.^[2]
• 1567 – verb, to proclaim, to give voice to (now rare).^[2]
• 1587 – in rhetoric, a set exclamation (obsolete).^[2]
• c. 1604 – a public sale, an auction.^[2]
• 1676 – verb, to sell by auction (obsolete).^[2]
• 1834 – a strong public protest.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1911.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong, widespread public protest: The plan to close the library caused an outcry among parents.^[9][5][2]
2. A loud cry or shout; clamour, uproar.^[9][5][2]
3. (commerce) In open outcry, a way of trading in which dealers call out their bids and offers aloud.^[9]
4. (chiefly US regional) A public sale to the highest bidder; an auction.^[2][8]

Verb

1. To cry louder than someone or something; to outdo in shouting.^[9][5][2]
2. To cry out (now rare).^[5][2][3]

Related words

• cry
• cry out
• out-

References

1. ^ 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 w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b 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)
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins