subtract

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin subtractus, the past participle of subtrahō (“to draw from beneath, withdraw, take away”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from sub- (“under, from below”) and trahō (“to draw, pull”).^[6][7][8] Ayto explains that the prefix here has the sense "away", so that the word means "to pull away".^[9] Etymonline also allows that it is a back-formation from subtraction.^[10] The OED notes that in post-classical Latin the verb was already used in mathematics for "to deduct", from the 6th century.^[2] An earlier Middle English verb, subtraien, recorded in arithmetic in the early 15th century, came directly from the Latin verb, compare Old French subtraire.^[10][11] The Latin verb is related to tract, traction and trace.^[4][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To withdraw or withhold something valuable or something to which another person is entitled: before 1538, in a Scottish text by A. Abell.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1530s with the senses "withdraw, withhold, take away",^[10] and Merriam-Webster to about 1538.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The mathematical sense, to take one number from another, followed within a few years: the OED's first record is from R. Recorde's Ground of Artes (1543),^[2] and Etymonline dates it to the 1550s.^[10] The older Middle English subtraien had already been used this way in the Craft of Numbering about 1425.^[10][11] The general senses "to withhold" and "to remove from a place" are now rare or archaic,^[2][3][12] while a figurative "take away, detract from" developed in the 17th century.^[2] Johnson (1755) entered the word as subtract but noted that substract, after the French, was the common form;^[13] Weekley explains substract by the influence of abstract and of French soustraire.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – Middle English subtraien, to subtract in arithmetic.^[10][11]
• before 1538 – to withdraw or withhold something valuable.^[2][3]
• c. 1540 – to remove from a place or position.^[2]
• 1543 – to take one number or quantity from another.^[2]
• 1610 – figurative, to take away, remove.^[2]
• 1652 – intransitive, to perform subtraction.^[2]
• 1682 – intransitive, to detract from.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take one number or quantity away from another to find the difference or remainder: Subtract the cost of postage from the total.^[15][3][2]
2. To perform subtraction.^[2][3]
3. To take away or remove a part from a whole.^[15][3]
4. (archaic) To withhold or withdraw something from someone.^[3][12][2]

Word family

• subtracter
• subtractive
• unsubtracted

Related words

• subtraction
• subtrahend
• tract
• traction
• trace
• abstract
• detract

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins