English
expel
Expel comes from Latin expellere, and goes back to pellō ‘to drive’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpellōas pellere‘to drive’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexpellere
- Englishearliest quotation 1590expel
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpellōas pellere‘to drive’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexpellere
- Englishearliest quotation 1590expel
Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto IX: “But to the ground the idle quarrell fell: /…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pel- ‘to drive, strike, thrust’
film, simple, simply, push, felt, filter, powder, complain, fold, pillow, flaw, pollen, palate, palpable, palladium, palatable, pall, wallow, polemic, tuple, pollinate, palatal, peloton, muffle, pulver, palp, pillion, interpolate, apoplexy, peplum, 62 more
through Proto-Italic *pelnō ‘to approach’
impulse, repulse, repellent, 10 more
through Latin pellō ‘to drive’
appeal, pulse, compulsory, repeal, propulsion, compulsive, expulsion, appellate, compel, propel, repel, dispel, pelt, impel, rappel, 16 more
Today it means
verb To eject.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin pellō / expel