Etymologically
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evacuatio

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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