preclude

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praeclūdō (“to shut off, obstruct, prevent”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} formed from prae- (“before, ahead”) and claudō (“to shut”),^[2][5][4][3] which appears in the compound as -clūdere.^[8][9] The OED compares Italian precludere, recorded from before 1472.^[2] Skeat compares conclude.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To close or bar a passage or route, or to obstruct entry or exit: before 1513, in J. Irland's Meroure of Wyssdome.^[2] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford date this to the late 15th century,^[11][12] while Barnhart gives 1618 and Etymonline the 1610s as the first date.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense faded: the Shorter Oxford marks it obsolete by the late 18th century,^[12] and the OED calls it now rare,^[2] while Etymonline dates a "close, shut up" use to the 1620s and thinks it probably obsolete.^[5] The word moved from barring a way to barring a person, from 1584 in Lodge,^[2] and then to ruling out an action or event in advance, from 1610 in Donne.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave this anticipatory sense alone, "to shut out or hinder by some anticipation", quoting Bentley and Pope.^[13] A legal use, chiefly American, for keeping evidence or a witness out of a trial is recorded from 1786.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1513 – to close or bar a passage or route.^[2]
• 1584 – to exclude a person from a course of action.^[2]
• 1610 – to prevent an action or event in advance, to make impossible.^[2] Etymonline dates this to the 1610s.^[5]
• 1786 – in law, to bar evidence or a witness from a trial.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make something impossible, especially in advance; to prevent: The storm precluded any chance of a rescue that night.^{[3][11][2][9]}
2. To keep a person from an action or condition, or exclude them from it: A knee injury precluded her from competing.^{[3][11][2][14]}
3. (law) To bar evidence, testimony or a witness from admission to a trial; chiefly American.^[2]
4. (rare) To close or bar a passage or route.^[2][12]

Word family

• preclusion
• preclusively
• preclusive
• precludable

Related words

• exclude
• foreclose
• close
• conclude
• include
• seclude

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