Etymology

absenteeism

A1B3S1E1N1T1E1E1I1S1M3

Today it means: The state of being absent, especially frequently or without good reason; the practice of an absentee. Full definition →

First used First attested in the early 19ᵗʰ century.English absentee ← Middle English absent ← Latin absēns
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂ep
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₂epó
  3. Proto-Italic*ap
  4. Latinab
  5. Latinab-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*h₁es-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*h₁ésti
  8. Proto-Indo-European*bʰuH-
  9. Proto-Indo-European*bʰúHt
  10. Proto-Italic*ezom~*som
  11. Old Latinesum
  12. Latinsum
  13. Latinabsum
  14. Latinabsēns
  15. Old Frenchausent
  16. Middle Frenchabsent
  17. Latinabsēns
  18. Middle Englishabsent
  19. Englishabsent
  20. Englishabsentee
  21. English todayabsenteeism

From absentee + -ism.

First known use, by meaning

  • First attested in the early 19ᵗʰ century. The state of being absent, especially frequently or without good reason; the practice of an absentee.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.