Other forms: exposures
Exposure is being left open to something with nothing in between. A walker caught out overnight in wind and rain can die of exposure: the cold gets in, and the body loses heat faster than it can make it.
The general sense takes TO — exposure to cold, to dust, to asbestos, to radiation, and, more happily, exposure to a new language or to ideas you had not met. Media people use it for attention: the band got good exposure, the case got heavy exposure in the press. Photography kept a technical meaning, the amount of light let onto the film or sensor, so you have a long exposure at night, an overexposed sky, thirty-six exposures on a roll. Exposure is also the bringing to light of something hidden — the exposure of a fraud, the exposure of a cover-up. In finance it is simply how much you stand to lose: exposure to the housing market.
1nounstateThe state of being unprotected from something harmful.
“Long exposure to loud machinery damaged his hearing.”
2nounexposureIllness or death caused by being out in extreme cold and wet.
“Two of the climbers died of exposure before the helicopter reached them.”
3nounpublicPublic attention given to someone or something.
“The tour gave the band more exposure than any advert could.”
4nounlightThe amount of light let onto film or a sensor; a single frame on a film.
“A thirty-second exposure turned the traffic into ribbons of light.”
5nounrevealingThe revealing of something hidden or dishonest.
“The exposure of the scheme ended three careers in a fortnight.”
6nounmoneyThe amount of money at risk in a market or investment.
“The bank cut its exposure to commercial property.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
exposure is a state of being left unprotected.
Proto-Indo-European
*tḱey-
Latin
expōnō — set forth
Old French
exposer — to lay open, set forth
Middle English
exposen
English
expose
English, today
exposure
Built from
From expose + -ure. expose comes from Middle English exposen, from Old French exposer (“to lay open, set forth”), from Latin expōnō (“set forth”), with contamination from poser (“to lay, place”). a doublet of expone and expound (via Old French espondre (“to set forth, explain”)), from the same Latin term.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA