Etymology

demolish

D2E1M3O1L1I1S1H4

Today it means: To destroy (buildings, etc.), especially in a planned or intentional fashion. Full definition →

Latin dēmōlior
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromdēmōlior“to tear down”
  2. English todaydemolish

Attested since the 16th century; from Middle French demoliss-, the stem of some conjugated forms of the verb demolir (“to destroy”, “to tear down”), from Latin dēmōlior (“to tear down”). Displaced native Old English tōweorpan (literally “to throw apart”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.