English
delete
Delete comes from Latin dēlētus ‘destroyed’, and goes back to dēleō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēleō1as dēlēvī‘to destroy, raze, annihilate’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēlēre1‘destroy, blot out, efface’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēlētus1‘destroyed’past participle of dēlēre
- Englishearliest quotation 1977delete1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English delete
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1977, Billboard: “One CRIA official pegs the total record sales of…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēleōWiktionary, English deleteas dēlēvī‘to destroy, raze, annihilate’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēlēreWiktionary, English delete‘destroy, blot out, efface’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēlētusWiktionary, English delete‘destroyed’past participle of dēlēre
- Englishearliest quotation 1977deleteWiktionary, English delete. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1977, Billboard: “One CRIA official pegs the total record sales of…”
The story
Original sense first appears c. 1495. In common use for ordering the absence of features of products (such as automobiles) in the 1960s. The computing sense, including the noun form, first appears c. 1977 in Software: Practice & Experience. Not related to deleterious.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- ‘to smear’
through Latin dēleō ‘to destroy, raze, annihilate’
Today it means
verb To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin dēleō / delete