Purge

How to spell purge

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce purge

What does purge mean?

1. verbTo remove or get rid of something unwanted, or to rid a group of unwelcome members.
2. nounAn act of removing or getting rid of unwanted people or things.

Purge in a sentence

• verb

  The new manager wanted to purge the database of duplicate records.

• noun

  The annual purge of inactive accounts kept the system running smoothly.

• verb

  The regime moved to purge all officials who opposed the leader.

• noun

  A sweeping purge of senior staff followed the takeover.

Where does purge come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb purgare, which meant 'to cleanse, clear, or purify'. That verb was itself built from purus, meaning 'clean' or 'pure', combined with agere, 'to do, drive, or make', so the literal idea was 'to make clean'. English took it up in the early 1300s by way of Old French purgier, at first in physical and medical senses such as clearing the body of impurities. Over the centuries the meaning broadened to cover removing unwanted people from an organisation and clearing away anything unwanted in general. The same purus root still shines through in close relatives like 'pure' and 'purify', which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the soft -ge ending rather than a -dge.

How the word is built

• purg- (from Latin purgare: to cleanse, purify)
• -e