adrenal

Etymology

It is formed from English ad- (“near, at”) + renal,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} after the earlier suprarenal.^[2][7] Etymonline calls it Modern Latin,^[8] and Barnhart and Klein analyse it as ad- with Late Latin rēnālis (“of the kidneys”),^[9][10] from Latin rēn (“kidney”).^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the glands near the kidneys: 1863, in Richard Owen's monograph on the aye-aye, where the noun, an adrenal gland, also first appears.^[2][7] Etymonline dates the adjective to 1866 and adrenal gland to 1875,^[8] and Barnhart gives 1875.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word took the place of suprarenal, recorded since 1791 for the same gland.^[2] From 1868 it was used of anything relating to or affecting the gland.^[2][12] The hormone adrenaline was named from it in 1901 by the Japanese chemist Jokichi Takamine,^[8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records the adjective for an effect like that of adrenaline, stirring anger or energetic action.^[7]

Timeline

• 1863 – designating the glands next to the kidneys; noun, an adrenal gland.^[2][7]
• 1868 – relating to or affecting these glands.^[2]
• 1875 – adrenal gland.^[8][9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Situated on or near the kidneys.^[6][7][11]
2. Of or relating to the adrenal glands or their secretions.^[6][7][2]
3. Having an effect like that of adrenaline; stirring anger or energetic action.^[7]

Noun

1. An adrenal gland, one of the two endocrine glands above the kidneys.^[6][7][2]

Word family

• adrenally
• adrenalectomy
• adrenaline
• adrenalin
• hypoadrenalism
• adrenal cortex
• adrenal gland

Related words

• postrenal
• prerenal
• renal
• suprarenal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
12. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)