diff -r d9c98730e2e8 Doc/library/timeit.rst
--- a/Doc/library/timeit.rst	Sat Jul 07 13:34:50 2012 +1000
+++ b/Doc/library/timeit.rst	Sat Jul 07 12:49:43 2012 +0200
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@
    may also contain multiple statements separated by ``;`` or newlines, as long as
    they don't contain multi-line string literals.
 
+   The execution time of *setup* is excluded from the overall timed execution run.
+
    To measure the execution time of the first statement, use the :meth:`timeit`
    method.  The :meth:`repeat` method is a convenience to call :meth:`timeit`
    multiple times and return a list of results.
diff -r d9c98730e2e8 Lib/timeit.py
--- a/Lib/timeit.py	Sat Jul 07 13:34:50 2012 +1000
+++ b/Lib/timeit.py	Sat Jul 07 12:49:43 2012 +0200
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@
 Options:
   -n/--number N: how many times to execute 'statement' (default: see below)
   -r/--repeat N: how many times to repeat the timer (default 3)
-  -s/--setup S: statement to be executed once initially (default 'pass')
+  -s/--setup S: statement to be executed once initially (default 'pass').
+                Execution time of setup statement is NOT timed.
   -p/--process: use time.process_time() (default is time.perf_counter())
   -t/--time: use time.time() (deprecated)
   -c/--clock: use time.clock() (deprecated)