Etymograph

English

vacuum

Vacuum comes from New Latin vacuus ‘empty’, and goes back to Proto-Italic *wakowos.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wakowosroot as named · steps between not traced
  2. New Latinc. 1500–1900vacuus‘empty’
  3. New Latin, derivedc. 1500–1900vacuumsubstantivised form of vacuus
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1837same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wakowosroot as named · steps between not traced
  2. New Latinc. 1500–1900vacuus‘empty’
  3. New Latin, derivedc. 1500–1900vacuumsubstantivised form of vacuus
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1837same form

Earliest quotation: 1837, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Ethel Churchill: Or: “Henrietta soon found a terrible vacuum left, by the…”

The story

The exercise sense comes from analogy to the sucking action of a vacuum cleaner.

Linked words

through New Latin vacuus ‘empty’

void, evacuation, evacuate, vacuous, 5 more

Today it means

noun A region of space that contains no matter.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Italic *wakowos / vacuum

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