void

Pronunciation

• IPA: /vɔɪd/^[1]

Etymology

It is, through Anglo-French, borrowed from Old French voide, feminine of voit, empty, vast, hollow,^[2][3][4] a dialect variant of Old French vuide (modern French vide),^[4][5] from Vulgar Latin *vocitus,^[2][4][6] related to Latin vocīvus, vacīvus, empty, and to vacuus and vacāre, to be empty (see vacuum and vacant).^[2][4][3] The verb is from Old French voider, to empty,^[2][3] and partly a shortening of avoid.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unoccupied, vacant: about 1300;^[2][3] first of a see or benefice with no holder, about 1290 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Lacking or devoid of something is from the late 14th century,^[3] and without legal force from about 1400,^[3] the 15th century in Hoad.^[4] The noun, the empty expanse of space, is from the late 14th century,^[3] an unfilled space or gap from 1616,^[2][6] absolute empty space from 1727, and a feeling of loss or emptiness from 1779.^[3] The verb, to empty, is from about 1300,^[3] to make legally invalid from the early 14th century, and to discharge from the body chiefly in medical use.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – unoccupied, vacant; to void (verb).^[2][3]
• late 14th century – devoid; the void.^[3]
• c. 1400 – legally invalid.^[3]
• 1616 – an empty space.^[2][6]
• 1779 – a sense of loss.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Containing nothing; empty.
2. Having no legal force; null: null and void.
3. Completely lacking: void of resources.
4. Of an office or house, unoccupied.
5. In card games, having no cards of a suit.

Noun

1. An empty space; a vacuum.
2. A feeling of emptiness or loss.

Verb

1. To make invalid: to void a contract.
2. To excrete bodily waste.
3. To empty or vacate.

Word family

• voider
• voidness
• nonvoid
• prevoid
• voidable
• null and void

Related words

• avoid
• devoid
• vacant
• vacuum
• vacate

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press