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evacuatio

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word evacuatio

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 160–220 AD, Tertullian
Ultimate origin
Latin ēvacuō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin vacuus
French vague
Latin vacuo
Latin evacuo
Latin evacuatio
English evacuation
From the same root
Latin vacefio ← vacuus
Latin vacuitas ← vacuus

Forms

ēvacuātiō f (genitive ēvacuātiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ēvacuō (“to empty”) + -tiō.[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Tertullian on;[2] he uses it figuratively for the weakening of faith.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In the medical writer Caelius Aurelianus it is the emptying of the vessels of the body,[4][5] and Leo the Great counts the emptying of the tomb among the proofs of the Resurrection.[2]

Medieval Latin used it for weakening, for abolishing or dissolving something, and, in law, for dropping a claim.[6] English borrowed it, partly through French, as evacuation, first of discharges from the body.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it for a weakening of faith.[3][8][9]
  • 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it for the emptying of the vessels.[4][8][9]
  • c. 1400 – Borrowed into English as evacuation, of discharges from the body.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An emptying, evacuation.[4][5][6]
  2. (Late Latin) A weakening.[3][6]
  3. (Late Latin) Abolition, destruction, dissolution.[5][6]
  4. (Medieval Latin, law) The dropping of a claim.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Evacuatio.” Etymologically, 24 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/evacuatio. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·