abdominal

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin abdōminālis,^[2][3][4][5] recorded in abdominalis musculus (“abdominal muscle”) from 1590,^[2] from Latin abdōmen (“belly”) and the suffix -ālis.^[2][3][6] Compare French abdominal, an adjective from 1611.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to the abdomen: 1650, in Walter Charleton's translation of J. B. van Helmont.^[2][3] Etymonline dates it to the 1550s,^[7] while the Shorter Oxford and Dictionary.com give the mid 18th century.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

From 1758 it was used of the abdomen of insects and other arthropods,^[2] and, beginning in 1769, of the former division Abdominales of bony fishes, which have their ventral fins behind the pectoral ones; such a fish was itself called an abdominal from 1765 until the mid 19th century.^[2][7][3] Other uses as a noun followed: a fin or segment on the belly (1838) and a muscle of the abdominal wall (1854), usually in the plural.^[2] Etymonline dates the noun "abdominal muscle" only to 1961.^[7] Surgeons spoke of an abdominal for an operation on the abdomen from 1885.^[2]

Timeline

• 1650 – of or relating to the abdomen.^[2][3]
• 1758 – of the abdomen of an arthropod.^[2]
• 1765 – noun, a fish of the division Abdominales (obsolete by 1861).^[2]
• 1769 – of fishes, having the ventral fins under the belly.^[2]
• 1838 – noun, a fin, scale or segment on the belly.^[2]
• 1854 – noun, a muscle of the abdominal wall.^[2]
• 1885 – noun, an abdominal operation (now rare).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, in or on the abdomen: She felt a sharp abdominal pain after lunch.^[3][2]
2. Of a fish, having the pelvic fins under the belly, behind the pectoral fins.^[3][2]

Noun

1. An abdominal muscle, usually in the plural.^[2][3]

Word family

• abdominally
• intra-abdominal
• postabdominal
• subabdominal

Related words

• abdomen
• abs

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com