- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- Plautus
- Ultimate origin
- Latin (claudō)
Pronunciation
Forms
exclūdō (present infinitive exclūdere, perfect active exclūsī, supine exclūsum); third conjugation[1]
Etymology
It is from ex- and claudō “to shut”.[2][1][3] Terence has the shortened perfect ⟨exclusti⟩ for ⟨exclusisti⟩, and Varro the spelling ⟨escl-⟩.[4][3]
Earliest recorded meaning
The OLD's earliest citation for excluding from an action is from Plautus, and Cato uses it of uncovering.[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[5]
Semantic evolution
It meant to shut out, deny entry, as in Terence and as the people of Gades shut the Carthaginians out of their walls, to cut off a place, and to debar or hinder from an action.[2][4][6] It meant to rule out a course of action, to leave out or omit, as in Varro, and to bring out of a container, and Cicero uses it of hatching from an egg.[2]
In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to reject, exclude, drive away, keep out.[7] Its feminine participle gave Late Latin exclūsa “a barrier shutting out water”, the source of Old French escluse and English sluice, and the verb itself gave English exclude in the mid-14th century.[8] It survives in Italian schiudere “to open”, and French éclore “to hatch” comes from a variant *exclaudere.[1]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of preventing.[2][5]
- 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of uncovering.[2][5]
- 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of shutting out.[2][5]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of hatching.[2][5]
- mid-14th century – English exclude is recorded.[8]
Meanings
Verb
- To shut out, keep out, deny entry to.[2][4]
- To cut off, separate.[2]
- To exclude, debar, hinder, prevent; to rule out.[2]
- To leave out, omit.[2]
- To bring out, uncover; to hatch.[2]
Word family
- exclūsiō
- exclusor
- exclūsus
Related words
- circumclūdō
- claudō
- conclūdō
- disclūdō
- inclūdō
- interclūdō
- occlūdō
- praeclūdō
- rēclūdō
- sēclūdō
- English exclude
- English sluice
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
- ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
- ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
Cite this entry
“Excludo.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/excludo. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.
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