aneurysm

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English aneurisma,^[2][3] also aneurisme,^[4] borrowed from Late Latin aneurisma,^[5][6][2] from Ancient Greek ἀνεύρυσμα (aneúrusma, “dilatation”),^[5][4][7][8] a noun formed from ἀνευρύνω (aneurúnō, “to dilate, widen out”),^[5][9][8] from ἀνά (aná, “up”) and εὐρύνω (eurúnō, “to widen”), from εὐρύς (eurús, “wide, broad”).^[5][6][7] The OED dates the Latin word to the 4th century,^[5] while Etymonline and Barnhart call it Medieval Latin.^[6][2] Etymonline gives the Greek noun in the variant form ἀνευρυσμός (aneurusmós), which the OED also records.^[6][5] The OED also notes Old English neurisn in Bald's Leechbook, probably an independent borrowing of the Latin word with the loss of its first syllable,^[5] and compares Middle French aneurisme, recorded from the second half of the 16th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A localized widening of an artery, with a thinned and stretched wall: before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.^[5] Barnhart also dates the form aneurisma to probably before 1425,^[2][3] but Dictionary.com dates the word to 1650–60.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From 1684 the word was used of a ruptured aneurysm as a cause of death or disability.^[5] From 1744 it was used of a dilated heart or heart chamber, a use now obsolete; in later medicine it came to mean a sac-like bulge in the wall of a chamber of the heart.^[5][11] A figurative use, a localized widening or swelling, is recorded from 1880.^[5] Modern dictionaries describe it as a blood-filled sac caused by disease or injury of the vessel wall, most often in the abdominal aorta and the arteries of the brain.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – a localized dilatation of an artery.^[5][2]
• 1684 – a ruptured aneurysm, as a cause of death.^[5]
• 1744 – a dilatation of the heart or one of its chambers.^[5]
• 1880 – figuratively, a localized widening or swelling.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A localized abnormal dilation of the wall of a blood vessel, usually an artery, forming a sac filled with blood: The scan showed a small aneurysm in the artery behind her eye.^{[8][12][4][11]}
2. A similar bulge in the wall of a chamber of the heart.^[5][11][4]
3. A ruptured aneurysm, as a cause of death or disability.^[5]
4. Figuratively, a localized widening or swelling.^[5]

Word family

• aneurysmal
• aneurysmally

Related words

• eury-

Usage notes

The spelling aneurism is a less common variant.^[8][12][7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins