Vanishes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Ceases to be visible or present, as if fading away until no longer seen
2. Gradually stops being noticeable or detectable in a certain place or condition
3. Completely goes out of sight or existence, making no trace behind

Etymology: This is an inflected form: "vanishes" is the third-person singular present of "vanish", so the history belongs to the verb itself. "Vanish" is a shortened form of the older "evanish", which came into English in Middle English from Old French "esvanir", a verb descended from Vulgar Latin "exvanire", meaning to disappear or fade out. Behind that lies the Latin "evanescere", built from "vanus", meaning "empty", which is also the source of "vain". The prefix matters: the Latin root carries the sense of something emptying out, becoming void, leaving nothing behind. English gradually lost the initial "e-", leaving "vanish" as the everyday form, and it now sits alongside "evanesce" as a doublet, a pair of words from the same source that entered English by different routes. The older native English verb for disappearing, "cwincan", was displaced by this borrowing and survives only in its causative descendant "quench", meaning to put out a fire.

Synonyms: disappears, fades

Antonyms: appears, materializes