Etymograph

English

eject

Eject comes from Middle French éjecter, from Latin ēiectus ‘expelled, ejected, rejected’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- ‘to throw’.

  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 CEēiciō2‘to throw out’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēiectus2‘expelled, ejected, rejected’perfect passive participle of ēiciō
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600éjecter2
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1958eject2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin eicio
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English eject
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1958, J. M. Dunn, The Afonwen Line—1: “In one case at least the land on which…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yeh₁-Wiktionary, Latin eicio‘to throw’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yéh₁kt ~ *(H)ih₁kéntWiktionary, Latin eicioreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiaciōWiktionary, Latin eicio‘throw, hurl’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēiciōWiktionary, English eject‘to throw out’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēiectusWiktionary, English eject‘expelled, ejected, rejected’perfect passive participle of ēiciō
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600éjecterWiktionary, English eject
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1958ejectWiktionary, English eject. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1958, J. M. Dunn, The Afonwen Line—1: “In one case at least the land on which…”

Linked words

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

year, hour, catheter, trajectory, enema, jut, iambic, abject, jetsam, 37 more

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

projection, objection, projectile, objector, 23 more

through Latin iaciō ‘throw, hurl’

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

Another origin of eject

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yeh₁-‘to throw’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(H)yéh₁kt ~ *(H)ih₁kéntreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiaciō‘throw, hurl’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēiciō‘to throw out’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēiectum‘thrown out’
  6. Englishtodayeject

Coined by W.

Today it means

verb To compel (a person or persons) to leave.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “eject”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin eicio. 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- / eject

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