Etymologically
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eliminare

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Pronunciation

  • /e.li.miˈna.re/[1]

Forms

eliminare (first-person singular present elìmino, first-person singular past historic eliminài, past participle eliminàto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

DELI, Nocentini and Sabatini–Coletti take it as borrowed from French éliminer, recorded in French in 1495, a learned word that goes back to Latin ēlīmināre (“to turn out of doors”).[2][3][4] DEI and GRADIT derive it directly from Latin, and compare French éliminer (14th century).[5][6] The GDLI notes that the French word was rare until the 18th century, and Tommaseo complained that the French overused it.[7][8]

The Latin verb is formed from līmen (“threshold”) with the prefix ē- (“out of”), literally “to put out over the threshold”.[2][3][6][9] De Vaan derives līmen, the crossbeam of a doorway, from the adjective līmus (“transverse, oblique”), as līmes (“boundary”) is too.[10]

The derivatives eliminatorio, eliminatoria and eliminazione also follow French éliminatoire (1875) and élimination (1765).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI and GRADIT date the first record to Scipione Maffei (1710–1716), in the sense “to remove, put aside”; the GDLI quotes him eliminating matters from discussion.[2][6][7] Zingarelli gives an earlier date, 1499.[11]

Semantic evolution

In algebra the verb came to mean removing an unknown from a system of equations, a use Tommaseo quoted from Maria Gaetana Agnesi.[8][11] The euphemistic sense “to kill” is dated before 1886, in Vittorio Imbriani.[2][4]

In sport, eliminatoria, a qualifying heat whose best competitors go on to the final, is recorded in 1908, and the verb now means to knock a team or competitor out of a competition.[2][12] Modern dictionaries add expelling substances from the body (eliminare le tossine).[6][4][11]

Timeline

  • 1495 – French éliminer is recorded.[2]
  • 1499 – Zingarelli's date for the Italian word.[11]
  • 1710 – Scipione Maffei uses eliminare.[6][2]
  • Before 1835 – Eliminazione is recorded in Romagnosi.[2]
  • Before 1886 – Imbriani uses it for “to kill”.[2]
  • 1908 – Eliminatoria and eliminatorio are recorded.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To remove, get rid of, make disappear: Ho eliminato tutti i file inutili.[6][12][4]
  2. To exclude, rule out: to discard a hypothesis.[12][13]
  3. To expel a substance from the body.[6][4][11]
  4. (sports) To knock out a competitor or team from a competition.[6][12][11]
  5. (euphemistic) To kill, do away with someone.[6][12][4]
  6. (mathematics) To remove a variable or parameter from a system of equations.[11][8]

Word family

  • eliminatoria
  • eliminatorio
  • eliminazione
  • eliminabile
  • eliminato
  • eliminatore

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  5. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1446
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  8. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli