English
exempt
Exempt comes from Latin exemptus ‘removed, banished, exempted’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁em- ‘to take’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁em-‘to take’next step skipped: Latin eximō
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexemptus‘removed, banished, exempted’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600exempt
- Englishearliest quotation 1591exempt
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁em-‘to take’next step skipped: Latin eximō
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexemptus‘removed, banished, exempted’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600exempt
- Englishearliest quotation 1591exempt
Earliest quotation: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “corrupted, and exempt from ancient gentry”.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁em- ‘to take’
assume, consumer, resume, premium, consume, assumption, ransom, redemption, redeem, résumé, sumptuous, consumable, pommel, pomade, overconsumption, preemption, emptor, 58 more
through Latin exemptus ‘removed, banished, exempted’
Today it means
adj Free from a duty, obligation, rule, law, etc.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₁em- / exempt