wash

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /wɒʃ/, US /wɑːʃ/, /wɔːʃ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English washen, inherited from Old English wascan, wæscan (“to cleanse, bathe”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *watskan,^[2][5] the source also of Dutch wassen and German waschen,^[2][3] formed from the stem of water.^[3][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cleanse with water: 900 in the OED and Barnhart.^[7][3] In Old English it was used mainly of clothes, and the usual verb for washing the body or dishes was þwēan.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Of the sea, to flow over or against, it is from the 13th century,^[5] and to remove with water from the 15th.^[5] Wash one's hands of, to refuse further involvement, is by the 1550s, an image from Pilate in Matthew 27:24.^[2] To wash down food with a drink is by about 1600,^[2] and wash up, to clean dishes after a meal, from 1751.^[2][7] The noun, an act of washing clothes, is from late Old English,^[2][7] land alternately covered and exposed by the sea from the mid-15th century,^[2] a thin coat of paint from the 1690s,^[2] clothes set aside for washing from 1789,^[2][7] and the waves left behind a moving boat later.^[2] Come out in the wash is by 1903.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 900 – to cleanse with water.^[7][3]
• c. 1050 – noun, a washing of clothes.^[7]
• 1550s – wash one's hands of.^[2]
• 1690s – a thin coat of paint.^[2]
• 1751 – wash up.^[2][7]
• 1789 – the laundry.^[2][7]
• 1903 – come out in the wash.^[2][7]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To clean something or someone with water, usually with soap.
2. Of water, to flow over or against something: waves washing the shore.
3. To carry something away by water.
4. (informal) To be believed: that excuse won't wash.

Noun

1. An act of washing.
2. Clothes to be washed or just washed.
3. The waves left behind a moving boat.
4. A thin layer of colour or paint.
5. A liquid used for washing, such as a mouthwash.

Word family

• dishwasher
• unwashed
• wash-and-wear
• washer
• whitewash
• underwash
• washable
• washeteria

Related words

• water

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 i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press