[f. L. excerpt- ppl. stem of excerpĕre, f. ex- out + carpĕre to pluck.]
1. trans. To cull out (passages, phrases, etc.); to take out as an extract; to extract, quote. Also absol. to make extracts.
c. 1536. Wolsey, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 99, II. 21. A Copy of certain Articles & Clauses excerpted & taken out of the Popes Letters.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., XI. 105/175. This close note, I excerpted.
a. 1662. Heylin, Laud, II. (1671), 301. He had excerpted and laid by many notes and precedents.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, II. iii. (1872), 113. An affectionate and eloquent notice of him; which … was excerpted into the newspapers also. Ibid. (1865), Fredk. Gt., IX. XX. x. 193. The Book we excerpt from is Mémoires du Comte de Hordt.
1874. Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, ix. 281. Athenæus … excerpted largely in this direction.
† 2. In etymological sense: To pluck out; to abstract, remove; also fig. Obs.
1538. Leland, Itin., IV. 64. Thinges excerpted out of the East Glasse Window of our Lady Chappell.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 553. Which musk being exerped [1658 excerpted] before it be ripe, smelleth strongly and vnpleasantly.
a. 1612. Donne, Βιαθανατος (1644), 23. Every branch which is excerpted from other authors, and engrafted here, is not [etc.].
¶ b. To take out, eliminate. rare.
1881. J. Payne, Villon’s Poems, Introd. 22. If one should excerpt from their verse its accidental local colouring.
Hence Excerpted ppl. a.
1818. G. S. Faber, Horæ Mosaicæ, II. 192. Excerpted particles of the pure and ethereal light.
