alimentary

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from French alimentaire (“relating to nourishment”), recorded in Middle French from 1580, and partly borrowed from Latin alimentārius,^[2] which in classical Latin meant concerned with maintenance by charity, and was used especially of children supported from a public or imperial fund.^[2] Etymonline takes it from the Medieval Latin sense "pertaining to food",^[3] and Barnhart allows that it may also have been formed in English from aliment and -ary.^[4][5] The Latin adjective is formed from alimentum (“nourishment, food”) and the suffix -ārius,^[2][4][6] and alimentum is from alō (“to nourish, rear, support, maintain”).^[3][4][2] The verb is cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌽 (alan, “to grow”) and Old Irish alim (“I nourish”),^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *al- (“to grow, nourish”).^[3][4] From the same Latin verb come alimony, alumnus and alma mater.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Providing nutrition, or relating to nutrition: 1608, in Edward Topsell's Historie of Serpents.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the same year,^[6] Barnhart 1615^[4] and Etymonline the 1610s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From its first sense of nourishment the word was soon applied to the bodily organs that digest food: from 1730 it designated those organs, and the alimentary canal is the whole passage from the mouth to the anus by which food is taken in and digested.^[2][8] Johnson (1755) defined it as relating to aliment, quoting Arbuthnot on food passing "through the alimentary duct".^[9] A second line of senses followed the Latin word's use for maintenance: from 1681, in James Dalrymple's Institutions of the Law of Scotland, it meant providing the means of living,^[2] and in Scots law an alimentary trust or provision is one protected from the claims of creditors.^[10] Merriam-Webster notes that in Scotland aliment is the legal term for an allowance given to a spouse, the sense that alimony has elsewhere.^[7] A rare noun alimentary, a person maintained by others, is recorded from 1617 to 1886.^[2] In the 19th century the adjective was extended to cooking and eating (1806), and the noun came to mean the digestive system itself (1851).^[2]

Timeline

• 1608 – providing nutrition; of or relating to nutrition.^[2][6]
• 1617 – noun, a person receiving maintenance (obsolete by 1886).^[2]
• 1681 – providing maintenance, in Scottish law.^[2]
• 1728 – in Roman history, of a child maintained by the emperor.^[2]
• 1730 – of the organs that digest food and absorb nutrients.^[2]
• 1806 – of cooking or eating; culinary.^[2]
• 1851 – noun, the digestive system, the alimentary tract.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to food, nutrition or digestion: the alimentary canal, the passage from the mouth to the anus.^{[10][6][11][8]}
2. Providing nourishment; nutritious.^[10][11][2]
3. Providing maintenance or sustenance.^[6][2]
4. (Scots law) Of a trust or allowance: protected from the claims of creditors.^[10]

Word family

• unalimentary
• alimentary canal

Related words

• aliment
• alimentation
• alimony
• alma mater
• alumnus

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin