Etymologically
Log in

sewage

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 07:04. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈsuː.ɪd͡ʒ/[1]
  • US: /ˈsu.ɪd͡ʒ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English sewer + -age,[2][3][4][5] the base being treated as if it ended in the agent suffix -er, which was replaced by the suffix.[6][7][8][3] Barnhart allows that it may instead be formed from the noun sew (“a sewer, drain”), recorded from 1475,[9][4] and notes a verb of that form meaning to drain, borrowed from Middle French essewer (“to make flow”);[9] that verb survived only in dialect by the 19th century, and the OED thinks the noun was probably formed without knowledge of it.[5][6] Klein takes it as short for sewerage,[10] but Barnhart points out that both words appear in the same London report of 1834 with different meanings, so that a shortening is unlikely.[9] The base is from Anglo-Norman sewere (“drainage channel”), recorded from 1376,[11][5] Old French sewiere (“sluice from a pond”), from a shortened form of Vulgar Latin *exaquaria, from Latin ex (“out”) and aquarius (“of water”), from aqua (“water”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Refuse matter carried off in sewers: 1818 in Etymonline,[5] and 1834 in the OED, Merriam-Webster and Barnhart, in the report of a select committee on the sewers of London.[6][2][9]

Semantic evolution

The same report of 1834 also used sewage for the system of drains itself, a sense now rare, for which sewerage became the usual word;[6][8][9] sewerage in turn has been used for the waste matter since 1851.[9] A verb to sewage, to water or fertilize land with sewage, appeared in 1861 in a report on the sewage of towns, and was used for providing a place with sewers from 1884.[6] The Shorter Oxford records the compound sewage farm, first a farm irrigated with sewage and later a place where sewage is treated.[8]

Timeline

  • 1818 – the refuse matter that passes through sewers, in Etymonline.[5]
  • 1834 – refuse matter in sewers; also the system of sewers.[6][2][9]
  • 1851 – sewerage first used for the waste matter itself.[9]
  • 1861 – verb, to irrigate or fertilize with sewage.[6]
  • 1884 – verb, to provide with sewers.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Waste water and excrement carried away from buildings by sewers or drains: Untreated sewage was pouring into the river.[2][6][8]
  2. (rare) Sewerage; a system of sewers.[6][8]

Verb

  1. (rare) To water or fertilize land with sewage.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)