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exhaustion

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Etymology and origin of the French word exhaustion

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1740 Buffon, translation of Newton's Method of Fluxions More words from the 18th century
Borrowed from
Latin exhaustio
Ultimate origin
Latin hauriō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin hauriō
Latin exhauriō
Latin exhaustiō
English exhaustion
French exhaustion
From the same root
Latin haustus ← hauriō

Pronunciation

Forms

exhaustion f (plural exhaustions)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin exhaustiō (“act of exhausting”), formed on exhaustum, the supine of exhauriō (“to drain, exhaust”).[3][1][4] The GLLF glosses the Late Latin noun as “the act of exhausting, completion, getting rid of”.[5] The Latin verb is formed of ex- and hauriō (“to draw (water)”).[6]

The Académie française says that the word came into French through the English word exhaustion;[7] the first French record is in Buffon's translation of an English work by Newton.[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1740, in the preface of Buffon's French translation of Newton's Method of Fluxions, as a mathematical term: the method of approaching a quantity by ever closer approximations.[3][1][5]

Semantic evolution

The mathematical méthode d'exhaustion proves two magnitudes equal by showing that their difference is smaller than any given quantity.[6][3] Before 1778 Diderot used the word in logic, for the method of examining a question by going through every possible case;[5][3] Valéry still used it in this sense.[5][3]

The concrete sense “the act of drawing off a fluid” appears in 1858 in Legoarant, in pompe d'exhaustion; it is now dated.[3][5][4]

Timeline

  • 1740 – Buffon uses it in his translation of Newton's Method of Fluxions.[3][5]
  • before 1778 – Diderot uses it in logic.[5]
  • 1858 – Legoarant records pompe d'exhaustion.[3][5]
  • 1873 – Littré records both the general and the logical senses.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (logic) A method of analysis that goes through every possible hypothesis in a question.[4][7][3]
  2. (mathematics) Méthode d'exhaustion: the method of exhaustion, computing or checking a quantity by ever closer approximations.[3][7]
  3. (dated) The act of drawing off or exhausting a fluid.[4][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  2. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  4. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ a b c Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
  8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 293b

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Exhaustion.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/exhaustion. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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