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Origin and history of vanish

vanish(v.)

c. 1300, vanishen, "disappear quickly," from shortened form of esvaniss-, extended stem of Old French esvanir "disappear; cause to disappear," from Vulgar Latin *exvanire, from Latin evanescere "disappear, pass away, die out." This is from ex "out" (see ex-) + vanescere "vanish," inchoative verb from vanus "empty, void" (from suffixed form of PIE root *eue- "to leave, abandon, give out").

By mid-14c. as "disappear gradually, fade away." Transitive sense of "cause to disappear from view" is by late 14c. Related: Vanished; vanishing.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to vanish

vanishing(adj.)

mid-15c., "disappearing from sight or existence," present-participle adjective from vanish (v.). Related: Vanishingly. Vanishing point in perspective drawing is recorded from 1797. Vanishing cream, so called because readily absorbed by the skin, is by 1908.

*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."

ex-

word-forming element, in English meaning usually "out of, from," but also "upwards, completely, deprive of, without," and "former;" from Latin ex "out of, out from the interior of a thing" (in opposition to in), "from within; from which time, since; according to; in regard to." This is reconstructed to be from PIE *eghs "out" (source also of Gaulish ex-, Old Irish ess-, Old Church Slavonic izu, Russian iz). In some cases also from Greek cognate ex, ek.

Often reduced to e- before -b-, -d-, -g-, consonantal -i-, -l-, -m-, -n-, -v- (as in elude, emerge, evaporate, etc.).

The sense in Latin naturally tended toward "thoroughly, utterly," and in some English ex- words with no clear connection to the idea of "out of," the element might be purely intensive. Among them are exhort, exhilarate, evident, excruciate, exclaim, exuberant, exaggerate, expiate, expect.

For use of Latin ex- as "(rise) up out of," as preserved in English emerge, emend, the notion is "out from the interior of a thing," in opposition to in-. Hence also in Latin, "in an upward direction," as in effervesce, exult, extol.

PIE *eghs had comparative form *eks-tero and superlative *eks-t(e)r-emo-.

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    appear
    late 13c., "come into view," from stem of Old French aparoir, aperer "appear, come to light, come forth" (12c., Modern French apparoir), from Latin apparere "to appear, come in sight, make an appearance," from ad "to" (see ad-) + parere "to come forth, be visible; submit, obey,"
    fly
    Old English fleoge "a fly, winged insect," from Proto-Germanic *fleugon "flying insect" (source also of Old Saxon fleiga, Old Norse fluga, Middle Dutch vlieghe, Dutch vlieg, Old High German flioga, German Fliege "fly"); literally "the flying (insect)" (compare Old English fleogen
    dwindle
    ), apparently diminutive and frequentative of dwine "waste or pine away," from Middle English dwinen "waste away, fade, vanish...," from Old English dwinan, from Proto-Germanic *dwinana (source also of Dutch dwijnen "to vanish," Old Norse dvina, Danish...
    evanescent
    " from French évanescent, from Latin evanescentem (nominative evanescens), present participle of evanescere "disappear, vanish..., pass away," figuratively "be forgotten, be wasted," from assimilated form of ex "out" (see ex-) + vanescere "vanish," inchoative...
    fleet
    Meaning "to glide away like a stream, vanish imperceptibly" is from c. 1200; hence "to fade, to vanish" (1570s)....
    glide
    Old English glidan "move along smoothly and easily; glide away, vanish; slip, slide" (class I strong verb, past tense glad...
    post
    "a timber of considerable size set upright," from Old English post "pillar, doorpost," and from Old French post "post, upright beam," both from Latin postis "door, post, doorpost," in Medieval Latin "a beam, rod, pole," which is perhaps from Vulgar Latin *por- "forth," a variant
    spot
    c. 1200, "moral stain;" by mid-14c. as "speck, stain left by something on a surface;" probably at least in part from a variant of Old English splott "a spot, blot, patch (of land)," and partly from or related to Middle Dutch spotte "spot, speck." Other cognates are East Frisian s
    stop
    Middle English stoppen, "obstruct (a passage) with a physical barrier; close up by filling, stuffing, or plugging," from Old English -stoppian (in forstoppian "to stop up, stifle"), a general West Germanic word, cognate with Old Saxon stuppon, West Frisian stopje, Middle Low Germ

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