vapor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vapour,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman vapour, also vapor,^[3][4][5][6] and directly borrowed from Latin vapor (“steam, exhalation, warmth”),^[4][5][2][7] earlier vapōs.^[3][8] In Old French it was vapor, now French vapeur.^[5][9] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from about 1300 in the sense "moisture, vapour".^[6] The Latin word is of unknown or uncertain origin.^[5][4][9] The American Heritage Dictionary relates it to vapidus (“flat (of wine)”), the source of vapid, and vappa (“flat wine”), all apparently from a Latin root meaning perhaps "to give off steam".^[10][11] Klein and Merriam-Webster compare Lithuanian kvãpas (“smell, scent”), and Klein also Ancient Greek καπνός (kapnós, “smoke”).^[9][3] The verb is vapouren, from the noun.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Matter in the form of a steamy exhalation, such as liquids turn into when heated: about 1374, in the OED.^[12] Barnhart dates the word before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible, with the senses "steam, mist",^[4] and Etymonline gives the late 14th century for "steam, moisture arising from heated matter; fumes from incense".^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the first it was also used figuratively of anything unsubstantial or worthless (1382),^[12][5] and of mist or fog rising from the ground (about 1386).^[12] Medieval medicine spoke of vapours rising from the stomach and other organs, which were thought to affect the brain (1422 in the OED);^[12][11][13] from 1662 the plural named the low spirits, hysteria or fainting believed to result from them, the vapours being a common complaint of the 18th century.^[12][11][13] A vapour was also a fanciful idea or a foolish boast from 1614,^[12] and the verb to vapour, to boast or brag, was very common in the 17th century, as Weekley notes, comparing the modern to gas.^[14][3] In Cumberland and other northern dialects vapour still meant bullying or boastful talk.^[15] The scientific sense, the gaseous form of a substance, dates from the mid-17th century;^[5] in modern physics a vapour is a gas below its critical temperature, which pressure alone can turn into a liquid.^[3][16]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – matter in the form of a steamy exhalation.^[12]
• 1382 – figuratively, something unsubstantial or worthless.^[12][5]
• c. 1386 – a mist or fog.^[12]
• c. 1407 – verb, to cause to rise as vapour.^[12][4]
• 1412–20 – verb, to rise as vapour.^[12]
• 1422 – plural, exhalations thought to arise in the body.^[12]
• 1614 – a fanciful idea; a foolish boast.^[12]
• 1634 – vaporize, to change into smoke; into vapour from 1803.^[4]
• mid 17th century – a substance in the gaseous state.^[5]
• 1662 – vapours, depression or hysteria.^[12]
• 1711 – the vapours.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Fine particles of moisture or another substance floating in the air and seen as mist, fog, smoke or steam: A vapor rose from the hot spring.^[16][3][7]
2. (physics) A substance in the gaseous state at a temperature below its critical temperature, so that pressure alone can liquefy it.^[16][3]
3. (rare) Something fanciful that has no substance or permanence.^[16][12]
4. the vapors (archaic): depression or hysteria, once believed to be caused by vapours rising from the stomach.^[16][12][11]

Verb

1. To give off vapor, or to pass away as vapor; to evaporate.^[3][7]
2. To talk in a boastful or high-flown way; to brag.^[3][14]

Word family

• vaporer
• vaporable
• vaporability
• vaporless
• vaporlike
• vaporific

Related words

• vaporize
• vaporous
• vapid
• evaporate
• vape

Usage notes

Vapor is the American spelling and vapour the British one.^[16][3][17] According to Barnhart, the British spelling has always been vapour, and vapor became established in American English through Noah Webster.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b 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 k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
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. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House