anthrax

Etymology

It is first recorded as inherited from Middle English antrax, also antrace,^[2][3] borrowed from Late Latin anthrax (“carbuncle, pustule”),^[4][2][5] used in medical writers from the 5th century,^[4] and partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman antrax, also antrace, recorded from about 1240.^[4][6][3] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ἄνθραξ (ánthrax, “charcoal, live coal; carbuncle”),^[4][7][5][8] of uncertain origin;^[4][8] Etymonline, following Beekes, thinks it probably comes from a pre-Greek language,^[7] and Klein and Merriam-Webster compare an Armenian word for a glowing coal.^[8][9] The spelling with “th” replaced antrax in the 16th century, to restore the classical form.^[3][10] The sense of the livestock disease follows French anthrax (1782 or earlier in this sense); French also used charbon (“coal”) for the same disease.^[4] The Greek word is also the source of anthracite.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A malignant boil or carbuncle: before 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De proprietatibus rerum, which says that a swelling called antrax is also called carbunculus, "for it brenneþ as cole".^{[4][2][3][12]}

Semantic evolution

The Greek word meant burning charcoal, and so was used for things red, such as a precious stone or a carbuncle, as well as for things black, such as coal.^[4] Ayto explains the medical sense as a metaphor of a burning coal applied to a very severe boil.^[11] Johnson (1755), following Quincy, still defined it as a scab or blotch made by a corrosive humour that burns the skin.^[13] The name of the acute disease of cattle and sheep is first recorded in 1789, after French,^[4][14] but it came into general use only in the late 19th century, when it was applied to the bacterial disease described by Louis Pasteur;^[11] Barnhart and Etymonline date this sense to 1876, the year Robert Koch established its cause.^[3][7] From 1892 the word also meant the bacilli or spores that carry the disease, and later such material made as a biological weapon.^[4] The old sense of a carbuncle is now rare or obsolete,^[15] and archaic in Merriam-Webster.^[9]

Timeline

• before 1398 – antrax, a malignant boil or carbuncle.^[4][2][3]
• 1500s – the spelling anthrax restores the classical form.^[3]
• 1789 – an acute, usually fatal disease of livestock.^[4][14] Barnhart and Etymonline date this sense to 1876.^[3][7]
• 1892 – anthrax bacilli or spores; later such material used as a weapon.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A serious infectious disease of cattle, sheep and other herbivores, caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which can spread to humans through contact with infected animals or animal products, or by swallowing or breathing in the spores.^{[16][9][17][4]}
2. The bacteria or their spores, especially when prepared as a biological weapon: The laboratory kept frozen samples of anthrax.^[4][17]
3. (archaic) A carbuncle or malignant pustule.^[9][15][4]

Word family

• anthracoid

Related words

• anthracite
• carbuncle

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins