anorexia

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French anorexie, recorded in 1584, and partly borrowed from Late Latin anorexia (“lack of appetite”), from the 6th century,^[2] which Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster call New Latin.^[3][4][5] Barnhart thinks the French word may have influenced it.^[4] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ἀνορεξία (anorexía, “lack of appetite”),^[2][3] formed from ἀνόρεκτος (anórektos, “without appetite”) and the suffix -ία (-ía),^[2] that is from the prefix an-, "without", and ὄρεξις (órexis, “appetite, desire”),^[3][6][7][8] from ὀρέγω (orégō, “to reach out, stretch out for, desire”).^[3][4][5] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary take the Greek verb from Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“to move in a straight line”),^[3][6] and Klein relates it to Latin regō (“to keep straight, guide, rule”).^[7] The English word is thus related to right and regent.^[4][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lack or loss of appetite for food: 1591, in King James VI's translation of Du Bartas's Furies, which renders the French anorexie of 1584.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED and Merriam-Webster date it to 1598.^[9][5] The OED also cites Andrew Borde's Breviary of Health (1547), which mentions anorexia as "the greke worde" for a distemper of the stomach.^[2]

Semantic evolution

At first it was a medical term for lack of appetite.^[2][10] From 1873 it was used, at first with a qualifying word such as hysterical or nervous, for a condition of refusing food until the body wastes away,^[2] the condition now called anorexia nervosa.^[10][11] In current use anorexia alone usually means anorexia nervosa,^[3][10] which Collins describes as a mental health condition marked by fear of gaining weight.^[11] The adjective and noun anorexic are recorded from 1974.^[4]

Timeline

• 1547 – the Greek word cited in an English text, Borde's Breviary of Health.^[2]
• 1591 – lack or loss of appetite.^[2]
• 1873 – a refusal to eat leading to emaciation, at first with a qualifying word (hysterical anorexia).^[2]
• 1974 – the derivative anorexic.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Loss of appetite, especially when it lasts long, as a symptom of illness.^[5][11][2]
2. Anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder in which a person refuses food out of fear of gaining weight.^[5][11][10]

Word family

• bulimarexia
• anorexiant
• anorexic
• anorexigenic

Related words

• anorectic
• right
• regent

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins