Etymograph

English

dejecta

Dejecta comes from Latin dejecta ‘things which have been cast away’, from iaciō ‘throw, hurl’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yeh₁-1‘to throw’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yéh₁kt ~ *(H)ih₁ként1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiaciō1‘throw, hurl’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēiciō2as dejicio, past participle‘to cast away’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdejecta2‘things which have been cast away’
  6. Englishtodaydejecta2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin deicio
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English dejecta

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yeh₁-Wiktionary, Latin deicio‘to throw’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yéh₁kt ~ *(H)ih₁kéntWiktionary, Latin deicioreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiaciōWiktionary, Latin deicio‘throw, hurl’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdēiciōWiktionary, English dejectaas dejicio, past participle‘to cast away’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdejectaWiktionary, English dejecta‘things which have been cast away’
  6. EnglishtodaydejectaWiktionary, English dejecta

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- ‘to throw’

year, hour, catheter, trajectory, enema, jut, iambic, abject, jetsam, 36 more

through Proto-Indo-European *(H)yéh₁kt ~ *(H)ih₁ként

objective, projection, objection, projectile, objector, 22 more

through Latin iaciō ‘throw, hurl’

disease, project, ease, adjacent, jet, object, injection, jess, gist, conjecture, adjective, jetty, inject, ejaculation, ejaculate, jettison, ejection, joist, eject, subjection, interject, 29 more

Today it means

noun any liquid or solid waste matter that is emanated, shed or discharged from the body. Dejecta include urine, faeces, sputum, pus, mucus, skin sloughing, lochia; their discharge can be nasal, aural, by expectoration, urethral, vaginal and so on.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “dejecta”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin deicio. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- / dejecta

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