repulsion

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French repulsion (“action of repelling”) and partly borrowed from Late Latin repulsiō (“rejection, refutation”),^[2][3][4] recorded from the 5th century,^[2] formed from repulsus, the past participle of repellō (“to drive back”), with the suffix -iō.^[2][5][6] The verb is formed from re- (“back”) and pellō (“to drive, strike”),^[4] which Watkins, as cited by Etymonline, takes from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to thrust, strike, drive”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Repudiation of a wife, divorce: about 1425, in Lydgate's Troy Book, in the phrase "writ of repulsion".^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The divorce sense died out by the late 15th century;^[2][7] the general sense, forcing someone or something back, is recorded from about 1460,^[2] though Etymonline has it only from the 1540s.^[4] Physicians used it from 1583 to 1874 for driving a morbid humour or eruption away from an affected part.^[2] The scientific sense, the action of one body in repelling another, appears before 1679, in Hobbes,^[2] and Johnson (1755) defined the word only as "the act or power of driving off from itself".^[8] An extended use, a tendency to separate or divide, follows from 1771.^[2] The feeling of intense disgust is recorded from 1751, in Johnson's Rambler,^[2][4] well ahead of the same sense in French, which the OED dates to the 19th century.^[2] Geneticists took the word in 1908 for one arrangement of linked genes.^[2][7]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – repudiation of a wife, divorce.^[2][3]
• c. 1460 – the action of forcing a person or thing back or away.^[2]
• 1583 – in medicine, driving a morbid humour away from an affected part (obsolete by 1874).^[2]
• before 1679 – in physics, the action of one object in repelling another.^[2]
• 1751 – a feeling of intense disgust.^[2][4]
• 1771 – a tendency to separate or divide.^[2]
• 1908 – in genetics, a condition of two linked genes.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A feeling of intense disgust or aversion: He felt only repulsion at the smell from the drain.^{[9][10][11][5]}
2. In physics, a force that tends to separate bodies, such as that between like electric charges or magnetic poles.^{[9][10][11][5]}
3. The act of driving someone or something back, or the state of being driven back.^[11][5][2]
4. A tendency to separate or to introduce division.^[2][7]
5. In genetics, the condition of two linked genes when the dominant allele of one lies on the same chromosome as the recessive allele of the other.^[2][7]
6. (obsolete, 1425–75) Repudiation of a wife; divorce.^[2][7]
7. (obsolete, 1583–1874) In medicine, the driving of a humour or eruption away from an affected part.^[2][7]

Word family

• interrepulsion

Related words

• repel
• repulse
• repulsive
• repellent
• compel
• expel
• impulse
• propel

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 x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt