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Origin and history of vacant

vacant(adj.)

c. 1300, vacaunt, "not filled, held, or occupied" (of a benefice, office, etc.), from Old French vacant "idle, unoccupied" (of an office, etc.), from Latin vacantem (nominative vacans), "empty, unoccupied," present participle of vacare "be empty" (from extended form of PIE root *eue- "to leave, abandon, give out").

It is attested by c. 1400 as "having no material contents." Of houses, by 1510s. The meaning "characterized by absence of mental occupation" is attested from 1570s. Related: Vacantly.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to vacant

*eue-

*euə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to leave, abandon, give out," with derivatives meaning "abandoned, lacking, empty."

It might form all or part of: avoid; devastation; devoid; evacuate; evanescent; vacant; vacate; vacation; vacuity; vacuole; vacuous; vacuum; vain; vanish; vanity; vaunt; void; wane; want; wanton; waste.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit una- "deficient;" Avestan va- "lack," Persian vang "empty, poor;" Armenian unain "empty;" Latin vacare "to be empty," vastus "empty, waste," vanus "empty, void," figuratively "idle, fruitless;" Old English wanian "to lessen," wan "deficient;" Old Norse vanta "to lack."

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    void
    c. 1300, "unoccupied, vacant," from Anglo-French and Old French voide, viude "empty, vast, wide, hollow, waste, uncultivated..., fallow," as a noun, "opening, hole; loss," from Latin vocivos "unoccupied, vacant," related to vacare "be empty," from...
    vague
    "uncertain as to specifics," 1540s, from French vague "empty, vacant; wild, uncultivated; wandering" (13c.), from Latin vagus...
    air-space
    In firearms, "a vacant space between the powder charge and the projectile" (1847)....
    area
    1530s, "vacant piece of ground," from Latin area "level ground, open space," used of building sites, playgrounds, threshing...
    devoid
    (an arrow)," from des- "out, away" (see dis-) + voider "to empty," from voide "empty," from Latin vocivos "unoccupied, vacant...
    opening
    Meaning "vacant space, hole, aperture, doorway" is attested from c. 1200....
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    successor, and with good management, or even without management, almost any perishable bag of bones may be hoisted into the vacant...
    attend
    c. 1300, "be subject to" (obsolete); early 14c., "direct one's mind or energies" (archaic), from Old French atendre "to expect, wait for, pay attention" (12c., Modern French attendre) and directly from Latin attendere "give heed to," literally "to stretch toward," from ad "to, to
    bureaucracy
    "government by bureaus," especially "tyrannical officialdom," excessive multiplication of administrative bureaus and concentration of power in them, in reference to their tendency to interfere in private matters and be inefficient and inflexible, 1818, from French bureaucratie, c
    celestial
    late 14c., "pertaining to the sky or the visible heavens; pertaining to the Christian or pagan heaven," from Old French celestial "celestial, heavenly, sky-blue," from Latin caelestis "heavenly, pertaining to the sky," from caelum "heaven, sky; abode of the gods; climate," which

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