Etymograph

English

efface

Efface comes from Middle French effacer ‘erase’, from Old French esfacier ‘remove the face’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-‘to do’root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400esfacier‘remove the face’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600effacer‘erase’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1825efface

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-‘to do’root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400esfacier‘remove the face’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600effacer‘erase’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1825efface

Earliest quotation: 1825, Walter Scott, The Talisman: “An outline of the same device might be traced…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do’

do, deal, hot, feature, mid, fact, defense, fair, theme, benefit, fashion, fan, custom, ethnic, treasury, treasure, sufficient, defence, ethical, thesis, aesthetic, feast, synthetic, theology, doom, tick, defendant, deed, dis, atheist, ethic, auditorium, auditor, atheism, demi, deem, spade, thematic, ethos, forfeit, 130 more

Today it means

verb To erase (as anything impressed or inscribed upon a surface); to render illegible or indiscernible.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- / efface

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