vanish

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vanisshen, also vanissen and vanshen,^[2][3][4] an aphetic form^[5][6][7] borrowed from Old French esvanir (“to disappear; to make disappear”), from its extended stem esvaniss-, also evaniss-;^[8][3][2][6] for the suffix see -ish.^[3][7] The Old French verb, now évanouir,^[9][10] is from Vulgar Latin *exvāniō,^{[8][3][11][4]} an alteration of Latin ēvānēscō (“to evaporate, pass away, die out”),^[11][4][12] formed from ex- (“out”) and vānēscō (“to vanish”), an inchoative verb from vānus (“empty, void”),^[8][3][9] the source of vain.^[12][9] Etymonline traces vānus to a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *eue- (“to leave, abandon, give out”).^[8] Klein compares Italian svanire and Portuguese esvair.^[9] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from about 1150, meaning to make faint, to vanish, and to wither.^[13] Barnhart calls it a doublet of evanesce,^[3] and Middle English also had a longer form, evanish.^[14][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To disappear from sight, usually with away: 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[5][3] Etymonline and the MED date it to about 1300.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Without away the verb is recorded from 1377, in Piers Plowman.^[5] Already in Middle English it also meant to pass out of existence, to fade away: in Richard Rolle about 1340 with away, and without it before 1375.^[5] Etymonline dates "disappear gradually, fade away" to the mid-14th century.^[8] Wyclif used it about 1380 for "to become worthless or vain", a sense that soon died out,^[5] and Chaucer used it seven times, also for "to waste away".^[15] The transitive sense, to make disappear, appears about 1450,^[5] or by the late 14th century in Etymonline,^[8] and is now used chiefly of conjuring.^[5] In mathematics, from 1715, a quantity vanishes when it becomes zero.^[5][16] The noun vanish, a disappearance, dates from 1650, and in phonetics the faint final part of a sound, such as a glide, from 1833.^[5][4] The vanishing point of perspective is recorded from 1797.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to lose perceptible existence".^[17]

Timeline

• 1303 – to disappear from sight, with away.^[5][3]
• c. 1340 – to cease to exist, fade away.^[5]
• 1377 – to disappear, without away.^[5]
• c. 1380 – to become worthless (obsolete).^[5]
• c. 1450 – transitive, to cause to disappear.^[5]
• 1650 – noun, a disappearance.^[5]
• 1715 – in mathematics, to become zero.^[5]
• 1797 – vanishing point.^[3]
• 1833 – noun, in phonetics, the faint end of a sound.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To disappear suddenly or completely, especially in a way that cannot be explained: The cat vanished under the porch.^[16][4][5]
2. To cease to exist; to fade away: Their hopes of a rescue slowly vanished.^[16][4][5]
3. (mathematics) To become zero.^[16][4][5]
4. To make something disappear, especially as a conjuring trick.^[5][4]

Noun

1. A disappearance, especially as a conjuring trick.^[4][5]
2. (phonetics) The faint final part of a sound, as of a diphthong.^[4][16][5]

Word family

• vanisher
• vanishingly
• vanishment
• vanishing point

Related words

• vain
• vanity
• evanescent
• evanesce
• evanish
• vacuum
• wane

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.