permeate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin permeātus, the past participle of permeō (“to pass through, penetrate, pervade”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from per- (“through”) and meō (“to go, pass”).^[2][3][7][8] Barnhart sees a formation in English, probably under the influence of the earlier permeable.^[4] Etymonline takes the first part from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“forward, through”) and the second from *mei- (“to change, go, move”),^[3] and the second is compared with Middle Welsh mynet (“to go”) and Czech míjeti (“to pass by”).^[7][4] There is a parallel in French perméer (“to penetrate”), from 1641.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To spread or penetrate, without an object: in T. Stanley's History of Philosophy of 1656,^[2][4][7] with permeation, permeant and permeable all recorded before it.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The transitive use, to pass or spread throughout something, followed in 1660, in Boyle's New Experiments.^[2] Johnson (1755) kept to the physical sense, "to pass through", with a quotation from Woodward on heat permeating the interstices of the strata.^[9] Etymonline's gloss has the same technical idea of passing into or through a substance without breaking it,^[3] and Merriam-Webster has that sense for pores and interstices,^[7] while Collins adds passing through by osmosis or diffusion.^[10] Merriam-Webster and Collins also apply it to what pervades a place or a group of people, such as a smell or an atmosphere.^[7][10]

Timeline

• 1656 – intransitive, to penetrate or spread.^[2][4][7]
• 1660 – transitive, to pass or spread throughout, to pervade or saturate.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To spread throughout something; to pervade or saturate: A sense of unease permeated the office.^[7][10][2]
2. To pass through the pores or gaps of a substance without breaking it, or through a membrane by osmosis or diffusion.^[7][10]
3. To spread or diffuse, without an object, usually with into, among or through: Water permeated through the limestone.^[7][2][6]

Word family

• permeant
• permeation
• permeative
• permeator
• interpermeate
• unpermeated

Related words

• impermeable
• permeable
• meatus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins