English
excretion
Excretion may come from Middle French excrétion.
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600excrétionuncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1881excretion
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600excrétionuncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1881excretion
Earliest quotation: 1881, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Journal of Social Science: “[…] the removal of all soiled liquids, and of…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *krey- ‘to sift, separate, divide’
certain, crime, criminal, crisis, secret, critic, critique, riddle, hypocrite, criterion, discernible, discreet, endocrine, discernment, rime, incriminate, ridder, criterium, certitude, incrimination, recrimination, 44 more
through Latin cernō ‘separate, sift’
secretary, discrimination, discriminate, discern, discrete, discretion, secretion, secrete, 8 more
through Latin excerno ‘to sift out, separate’
Today it means
noun The process of removing or ejecting material that has no further utility, especially from the body; the act of excreting.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle French excrétion / excretion