Etymologically
Log in

abdominal

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 07:31. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /æbˈdɒm.ə.nl̩/, /əbˈdɒm.ə.nl̩/[1]
  • US: /æbˈdɑm.ə.nl̩/, /əbˈdɑm.ə.nl̩/[1]

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
  • 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