Etymograph

English

except

Except comes from Middle French excepter, from Latin exceptus ‘taken out’, participle of excipiō, from capiō ‘to take’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcapiō1‘to take’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexcipiō2‘to take out, except’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexceptus1‘taken out’
  4. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600excepter1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1526except1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English except
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin exceptus
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1526, [William Tyndale, The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible): “And they sayde: We have no moo but five…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcapiōWiktionary, English except‘to take’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexcipiōWiktionary, Latin exceptus‘to take out, except’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexceptusWiktionary, English except‘taken out’
  4. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600excepterWiktionary, English except
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1526exceptWiktionary, English except. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1526, [William Tyndale, The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible): “And they sayde: We have no moo but five…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with except, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *kap-

  • had ← hadde ← hæfde ← *habdaz ← *habjaną
  • case ← casse ← capsa ← *kapsos ← *kapjō
  • head ← efd ← hēafod ← *haubud ← *haubudą
  • capital ← capitale ← capitulum ← caput ← *kaput
  • heavy ← hevy ← hefiġ ← *habīg ← *habīgaz
  • cash ← caisse ← caissa ← capsa ← capiō
  • catch ← cacchen ← cachier
  • capacity ← capacite ← capacite ← capācitās
  • behavior ← behavoure
  • captain ← capitain ← capitaine ← capitāneus ← caput
  • escape ← escapen ← escaper ← *excappāre ← cappa
  • receive ← receyven ← receivre ← recipere ← capiō

204 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

verb To exclude; to specify as being an exception.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “except”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin exceptus. 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 / Latin capiō / except