Etymograph

English

excoriate

Excoriate comes from Late Latin excoriō ‘to take the skin or hide off, flay, skin’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)koryóm.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)koryómreconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*korjomreconstructed
  3. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEcorium‘hide, skin’
  4. Late Latin, derivedc. 200–600 CEexcoriō‘to take the skin or hide off, flay, skin’
  5. Late Latin, derivedc. 200–600 CEexcoriātusperfect passive participle of excoriō
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*excoriatenreconstructed
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1543excoriate

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)koryómreconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*korjomreconstructed
  3. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEcorium‘hide, skin’
  4. Late Latin, derivedc. 200–600 CEexcoriō‘to take the skin or hide off, flay, skin’
  5. Late Latin, derivedc. 200–600 CEexcoriātusperfect passive participle of excoriō
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*excoriatenreconstructed
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1543excoriate

Earliest quotation: c. 1543, Thomas Phaer: “If the bowelles be excoriate, ye shall gyue thys…”

The story

First attested in the first part of the 15ᵗʰ century, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English *excoriaten (only attested in its past participle), borrowed from Late Latin excoriātus perfect passive participle of excoriō (‘to take the skin or hide off, flay, skin’), from ex- (‘out off, from’) + corium (‘hide, skin’) + -ō.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut off, sever’

across, share, short, card, cross, cancer, screen, shirt, circle, circuit, score, curve, crucial, scare, circus, skirt, carnival, circulation, curb, scar, scrutiny, crest, cancellation, circa, shrine, shear, shred, carnage, incarceration, raffle, carcinoma, shrewd, coronary, corona, crux, scorpion, shard, carnal, cirque, circulate, 118 more

through Late Latin corium ‘hide, skin’

currier, 7 more

Today it means

verb To remove the skin and/or fur of, to flay, to skin.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)koryóm / excoriate

Shirt and support for this word