Etymology

cleanse

C3L1E1A1N1S1E1

Today it means: To free from dirt; to clean, to purify. Full definition →

Middle English clensen ← Old English clǣnsian ← Proto-West Germanic *klainisōn
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*klainī“clean”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*klainisōn
  3. Old English · inherited fromclǣnsian
  4. Middle English · inherited fromclensen
  5. English todaycleanse

From Middle English clensen, from Old English clǣnsian, from Proto-West Germanic *klainisōn, from Proto-West Germanic *klainī (“clean”). Cognate with West Frisian klinzgje (“to clean, cleanse”), archaic Dutch kleinzen (“to clean, purify”), Middle Low German klênsen, kleinsen, clensen (“to purify”).

Words from the same roots

Proto-West Germanic*klainī all →

clean

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.