repellent

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin repellens (“repercussive”), a medical use, recorded from 1607 or earlier, of the present participle of Latin repellō (“to drive back”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The noun follows the adjective, compare the plural repellentia, used in British sources from 1565 or earlier.^[2] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and pellō (“to drive, strike”),^[3][7] which Watkins derives from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to thrust, strike, drive”).^[3][7] The OED compares Anglo-Norman repelant (“repulsive”), found once in the mid-13th century.^[2] The spelling repellant is an alteration influenced by the suffix -ant.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a medicine, driving back a swelling or humour, the sense now called repercussive: 1575, in J. Banister's treatise on surgery.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the adjective to the 1640s, also of medicines that reduce tumours,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford to the mid-17th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The medical sense lasted until the mid-19th century.^[2] In physics the adjective meant having the power to repel other bodies from 1654,^[2] and resistant to moisture or dirt from 1789, a sense Etymonline dates to 1805.^[2][3] The sense "causing disgust or aversion" is recorded from 1776,^[2] by 1797 according to Etymonline.^[3] The noun followed the same course: first a medicine that drives back swellings (1661),^[2][3] it came to mean a finish that makes a fabric resist water or dirt (1843) and a substance that keeps insects away (1861),^[2] a sense Etymonline dates to 1908.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the noun only as an application with a repelling power, quoting Wiseman on erysipelas.^[8]

Timeline

• 1575 – of a medicine, repercussive (obsolete by 1856).^[2][4]
• 1654 – having the power of repelling other objects.^[2]
• 1661 – noun, a repercussive medicine (obsolete by 1893).^[2][3]
• 1776 – causing disgust or aversion.^[2]
• 1789 – resistant to moisture, dirt or oil.^[2]
• 1843 – noun, a substance applied to fabric to make it resistant to moisture or dirt.^[2]
• 1850 – of a substance, keeping insects or other animals away.^[2]
• 1861 – noun, a substance that keeps insects or other animals away.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Causing disgust or aversion; repulsive: He found the smell of the swamp repellent.^[9][4][7]
2. Driving away or warding off, especially insects.^[9][4][7]
3. Resistant to a liquid or other substance, often in compounds: a water-repellent jacket.^[7][4][2]
4. (obsolete) Of a medicine, driving back a swelling or humour; repercussive.^[2][5]

Noun

1. A substance that keeps insects or other animals away.^[9][4][7]
2. A substance applied to fabric or another surface to make it resist water, dirt or oil.^[9][4][2]
3. (obsolete) A medicine that drives back a swelling or humour.^[2][8]

Word family

• repellence
• repellently
• interrepellent
• nonrepellent
• repellency
• unrepellent

Related words

• repel
• repulse
• repulsive
• repellant
• compel
• dispel
• expel
• propel
• pulse

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes Fowler (1926): what is repellent keeps one at arm's length, while what is repulsive makes one recoil, so the second is much the stronger word.^[3] The spelling repellant is less common.^[4][9]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins