siphon

Etymology

It first appears as inherited from Middle English siphon, also sifone and ciphone,^[2] borrowed from Latin sīphō (“pipe, tube”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek σίφων (síphōn, “pipe, tube”).^[3][5][6] For the word of the 17th century, the OED keeps the Latin source and compares French siphon, recorded from 1611,^[6] while Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Skeat and Partridge take it through that French word,^[7][8][9] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford leave the choice open.^[10][11] In Greek it is a technical term, used from Hipponax on of a tube, especially for draining water, and of a fire-engine, fountain or wine siphon.^[12] Its further origin is unclear:^[12][5][3] Beekes wonders whether it is onomatopoeic,^[12] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged thinks it probably akin to Latin tībia (“shinbone”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A water hose or fire hose: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum, "Siphon..is a vessel þat haþ þe name for blowynge; he casteþ out water".^[2][3] The Middle English Dictionary also has it, perhaps before 1425, in the surgery of Chauliac, as ciphone, a tube for drawing fluid out of a swelling.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English word did not last: the Shorter Oxford records the sense "tube, hose" only for that period.^[11] The OED's own record starts with the modern sense, a bent tube that carries liquid to a lower level, in J. Leak's translation of I. de Caus's New Inventions of Water-Works (1659),^[6][7][5] and Hoad and Collins date the word to the 17th century.^[10][13] Johnson (1755) defined it plainly as a pipe through which liquors are conveyed, quoting Thomson's "rocky siphons stretch'd immense",^[14] the OED's first case of a natural channel working on the same principle.^[6] From the 19th century the word named tube-like organs in zoology,^[6][11] and a bottle of soda water from 1875.^[6] The verb arose in 1859,^[6][7][3][5] for drawing off a liquid, and in 1892 also meant emptying something in that way.^[6] The figurative sense "to draw off, divert", often of money and illicitly, is recorded from 1940, in E. Wilson.^[6][5]

Timeline

• before 1398 – a water hose or fire hose (obsolete).^[2][3]
• before 1425 – a surgical tube for drawing fluid from a swelling (the date is queried).^[2]
• 1659 – a bent tube carrying liquid to a lower level.^[6][7]
• 1744 – a natural channel working on that principle.^[6]
• 1826 – a tube-like organ of an animal.^[6]
• 1859 – verb, to draw off liquid by a siphon.^[6][7][3]
• 1875 – a bottle of aerated water.^[6]
• 1892 – verb, to empty in the manner of a siphon.^[6]
• 1940 – verb, figurative, to draw off or divert.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bent tube or pipe through which liquid flows over a rim to a lower level, drawn by atmospheric pressure and the weight of the liquid: We drained the pond with a length of garden hose as a siphon.^[7][13][6]
2. A bottle that forces out carbonated water by the pressure of its gas; a soda siphon.^[13][6][11]
3. (zoology) A tubular organ through which water or another fluid passes, as in a mollusc.^[13][6][11]
4. (obsolete, Middle English) A water hose, or a surgical tube for drawing off fluid.^[2][11]

Verb

1. To draw off or convey liquid through a siphon: He siphoned the diesel out of the drum.^[7][13][6]
2. To empty something in this way.^[7][6]
3. To divert money or resources for another purpose, often illicitly and with off: The treasurer siphoned off the charity's funds.^[7][6][11]

Word family

• siphonal
• siphonless
• siphonlike
• siphonage
• siphonostele
• thermosiphon
• siphonic

Related words

• siphuncle

Usage notes

The spelling syphon is a less common variant.^[7][13][11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.