Etymologically
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sediment

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈsɛd.ɪ.mənt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French sédiment,[2][3][4][5] recorded in French from the 16th century,[4][6] and probably also directly borrowed from Latin sedimentum (“a settling, sinking down, subsidence”),[2][6][7][8] from sedeō (“to sit, settle”) with the suffix -mentum,[9][3] from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”).[6][10] The same Latin verb, closely related to English sit, gave session, sedentary, assess, insidious, subsidy and supersede.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Matter made of particles that sink to the bottom of a liquid: 1547, in R. Recorde's The Urinal of Physick.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used of the dregs that settle in a liquid.[4][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as what subsides or settles at the bottom, quoting Bacon's Natural History.[12] A figurative sense, the worst part or dregs of something, is recorded from 1656.[4][7] From 1685, in Boyle, sediment was used in geology for earthy matter laid down by water,[4][6] and later for material deposited by water, ice or wind.[7][13][3] The verb, to deposit as sediment, followed in 1859, and the derivatives sedimentary (1830) and sedimentation (1874) belong to the same scientific use.[4][3][2]

Timeline

  • 1547 – matter settling to the bottom of a liquid.[4][3][2]
  • 1656 – figurative, the dregs of something.[4]
  • 1685 – in geology, matter deposited by water.[4][6]
  • 1830 – sedimentary.[2]
  • 1859 – verb, to deposit as sediment.[4][3]
  • 1874 – sedimentation.[2]
  • 1927 – verb, to settle as sediment.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid; dregs or lees: There was a fine sediment at the bottom of the bottle.[3][13][4]
  2. (geology) Solid material, such as sand, silt or gravel, carried and deposited by water, wind or glaciers.[3][13][7][4]
  3. (figurative) The worst part or remnant of something.[7][4]

Verb

  1. To deposit something as sediment.[3][4]
  2. To settle to the bottom as sediment; of a liquid, to deposit sediment.[3][4][7]

Word family

  • sedimentous
  • sedimentable
  • sedimentology

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins