perforate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin perforō (“to bore through, pierce”), through the past participle perforātus and its stem.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin verb is formed from per- (“through”) and forō (“to bore, pierce”),^[2][6][5] which is cognate with bore.^[7][8][4] Etymonline traces the parts to Proto-Indo-European *per- (“forward, through”) and *bhorh- (“hole”).^[9] Barnhart and Etymonline also allow a back-formation from the earlier perforation.^[10][9] The OED compares Old French parforer, later perforer, and Italian perforato.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective, pierced with holes, is the first record: before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie,^[2][11] the same text that first has perforation.^[10] The verb, to make a hole through, follows in Elyot's Dictionary of 1538,^[2][10][3] though Etymonline finds it implied in perforated in the late 15th century.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the literal sense of boring through, the verb extended in 1578 to a channel or passage running through a body,^[2] and by about 1660 to boring into something.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave "to pierce with a tool; to bore".^[12] Its uses in medicine are later: to penetrate, from 1769, and to become perforated, from 1897.^[2] Weekley remarked in 1921 that the chief current sense came in with improved postage stamps,^[8] and the OED notes the making of a row of small holes so that a part can be torn off.^[2] American slang took it up for shooting or stabbing a person from 1838, in the Crockett Almanacks,^[2][13] with quotations running into the 20th century.^[13] In biology the adjective has narrower uses: in botany of having translucent glandular dots,^[11][14] and of spiral shells with an open umbilicus.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1425 – adjective, pierced with holes.^[2][11]
• 1538 – verb, to make a hole through.^[2][10][3]
• 1578 – of a channel or passage, to run through a thing.^[2]
• c. 1660 – to bore into.^[2]
• 1769 – intransitive, to penetrate.^[2]
• 1777 – to form a hole by boring or punching.^[2]
• 1838 – US slang, to shoot or stab.^[2][13]
• 1897 – intransitive, to become perforated.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a hole or holes through; to pierce: A nail perforated the tyre.^[14][3][2]
2. To punch rows of small holes in, so that parts tear off easily, as with stamps or coupons.^[14][3][2]
3. To pass or extend through the substance of something.^[2][11]
4. (chiefly medicine) To penetrate; to become perforated: The appendix perforated before the operation.^[2][11]
5. (US slang) To shoot or stab a person.^[2][13]

Adjective

1. Having a hole or holes; perforated.^[3][2][11]
2. (biology) Pierced by small holes, or marked with small translucent spots.^[14][11]
3. Of a spiral shell, having an open umbilicus.^[3]

Word family

• perforable
• perforative
• perforator
• nonperforating
• multiperforate
• perforation
• imperforate

Related words

• bore
• foramen

References

1. ^ a b 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 x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins