evacuation English · revision 39915

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1400, Lanfranc's Cirurgie|origins=la vacuus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ɪˌvækjuˈeɪʃən/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|evacuacioun]], [[bor|la-lat|ēvacuātiō|t=an emptying]], a noun of action from [[m|la|ēvacuō|t=to empty]],^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(Dictionary.com 2016)^(Klein 1966) partly through [[m|fro|evacuation]] and [[m|frm|evacuation]].^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(Barnhart 1988) The Latin verb is formed from ''ē-'', "out", and [[m|la|vacuus|t=empty]].^(OED 2026)^(AHD 2024) In classical Latin it is found only in Pliny, of emptying the bowels; the Vulgate and later law books used it figuratively, "to make void, nullify".^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ In medicine, the clearing of the body or an organ of excess or morbid matter, the ''humours'': c1400, in ''Lanfranc's Cirurgie'',^(OED 2026) before 1400 in Barnhart, for the discharge of humours;^(Barnhart 1988) Etymonline notes that it was at first mostly the letting of blood.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From medicine the word passed to the natural discharge of waste from the body, especially the bowels (?1533), and to the matter discharged (1625).^(OED 2026)^(AHD 2024) The general sense, the emptying of a container or the removal of its contents, dates from 1593, in Hooker.^(OED 2026) Following the figurative Latin use, ''evacuation'' also meant nullification from 1649,^(OED 2026) a sense Johnson (1755) gave as "abolition; nullification", besides a discharge that leaves a vacancy, as in Hale's "the vast evacuations of men that England hath had".^(Johnson 1755)^(OED 2026) The military sense, the withdrawal of troops from a place, is recorded from 1710 in the ''London Gazette'',^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline) and the removal of people from a place of danger by 1854.^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c1400 – the medical clearing of the body.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)

+ * ?1533 – the discharge of waste matter from the body.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1593 – the emptying of a container.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1625 – the matter discharged.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1649 – nullification.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1710 – (military) the withdrawal of troops.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1854 – the removal of people from danger.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The removal of people from a dangerous place to a safe one: ''The flood forced the evacuation of three villages.''^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002)

+ # (military) The [[withdrawal]] of troops from a place.^(MWU 2024)^(OED 2026)

+ # The act of emptying something or clearing it of its contents, such as removing the air from a vessel.^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002)

+ # ([[physiology]]) The discharge of waste from the body, especially from the bowels; [[defecation]]; also, the matter discharged.^(AHD 2024)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[nonevacuation]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[evacuee]]

+ * [[evacuate]]

+ * [[vacuum]]

+ * [[vacant]]

+ * [[void]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}