sewerage

Etymology

It is formed from English sewer + -age,^[2][3][4][5] from sewer in the sense of a drain; the Shorter Oxford instead takes the base as the verb of the same spelling.^[6] That noun is from Middle English seuer, from Old French sewere, the Anglo-Norman form, and Old French sewiere (“sluice from a fishpond”),^[3][2][7] from Vulgar Latin *exaquāria, formed from ex- (“out”) and aquārius (“pertaining to water”), from aqua (“water”).^[7][3][2] The related sewage was formed in the same years by a change of suffix.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sewers collectively, and the system of draining by them: 1832 in Etymonline,^[3] and 1834 in the OED, in the report of a Select Committee on the metropolitan sewers.^[2][4] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1825–35.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word arose in the 1830s for drainage by sewers and for a town's whole system of sewers.^[2][3] By 1851 it was also used for the waste itself, the same thing as sewage, a use the OED finds in Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor;^[2][4] the more general sense of carrying away refuse followed in 1856.^[2] From 1859, in George Meredith's The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, it was also used figuratively of moral filth,^[2] and Merriam-Webster records it for foul thought or language.^[4]

Timeline

• 1832 – sewers collectively; the system of removing refuse by sewers.^[3] The OED's first record of this sense is from 1834.^[2][4]
• 1834 – drainage by sewers; a method or system of draining.^[2]
• 1851 – sewage, the waste matter carried in sewers.^[2]
• 1856 – the carrying away of refuse.^[2]
• 1859 – figuratively, moral filth.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The removal and disposal of sewage and surface water through sewers.^[4][2][8]
2. A system of sewers, as of a town or district; also called a sewerage system.^[4][2][6]
3. Sewage: Heavy rain sent sewerage into the river.^[4][2][6]
4. Foul or obscene talk or thought.^[4][2]

Related words

• sewer
• sewage
• ewer
• aquarium

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster