vacant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vacaunt, borrowed from Old French vacant (“idle, unoccupied”) (Anglo-Norman vacaunt), and partly directly Latin vacāns (“empty, unoccupied”),^[2][3][4] the present participle of vacō (“to be empty, be free, be at leisure”).^[5][6][7] The OED notes that the evidence is scanty before the late 16th century,^[2] and Hoad thinks the word was then taken afresh from Latin.^[8][9] Klein relates the Latin verb to vacuus (“empty”), the source of vacuum, and probably to vāstus (“empty, waste”);^[5] Merriam-Webster suggests a link with vānus (“empty”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a church benefice or other office: not filled, without a holder: about 1290, in the South English Legendary.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date the spelling vacaunt to about 1300,^[7][4] and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records the word from about 1292 for a post that lacks an incumbent.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From “without a holder” the word widened to anything empty: having no contents is recorded about 1400,^[4][2] and of houses or land without tenants from 1518 (the 1510s in Etymonline).^[2][4] In the 16th century it was also used of time free from business, from 1531 in Thomas Elyot's Governour, and of people at leisure,^[2] and Johnson (1755) defined it first as empty or unfilled, then as free or unencumbered.^[11] The sense “empty of thought, expressionless”, of a look or a mind, is first recorded in 1712, in Steele's essays in The Spectator.^[7] The derivative vacancy is recorded from about 1580.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – of a benefice or office: not filled.^[2]
• c. 1400 – empty of contents.^[2][4]
• 1518 – of a house or land: without tenants.^[2]
• 1531 – of time: free from business.^[2]
• c. 1580 – the noun vacancy.^[7]
• 1600 – of a seat or place: not taken, in Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing.^[2]
• 1712 – expressionless, vacuous.^[7]
• 1853 – of water: free from ice.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Empty; not occupied or in use: a vacant parking space.
2. Of a post or office: without anyone holding it.
3. Of a house or room: with no one living in or using it.
4. Showing no thought, interest or expression: She gave him a vacant look.
5. Of time: not taken up by any activity.
6. Vacant of: lacking, without.

Word family

• vacantly
• vacantness
• nonvacant
• unvacant

Related words

• vacate
• vacuous
• vacuum
• vacation
• void
• evacuate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.