antibiotic

Etymology

The OED, revising the entry in 2024, takes it as formed from English anti- + -biotic, in its modern sense after French antibiotique, recorded from 1878 or earlier, and compares German antibiotisch, recorded from 1826.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline take the modern adjective as a borrowing of the French word,^[3][4] which Merriam-Webster derives from antibiose (“antibiosis”), on the model of symbiose and symbiotique.^[5] The second element goes back through Late Latin bioticus (“of life”) to Ancient Greek βιωτικός (biōtikós, “fit for life”), from βίος (bíos, “life”).^[2][4][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In biology, opposed to the idea that life can exist in the depths of the sea: 1858, in M. F. Maury's Physical Geography of the Sea.^[2][6][7] Etymonline records an early use meaning "not from living organisms" in debates over the origin of certain fossils (1860).^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first, 19th-century sense died out by the 1880s.^[2][6] The modern adjective, killing or checking the growth of microorganisms, is recorded from 1891 in the Lancet,^[2][5] from 1894 according to Barnhart and Etymonline.^[3][4] The noun, a substance that kills or checks microorganisms, is dated 1892 by the OED,^[2] but the Shorter Oxford notes that the word was rare before the mid-20th century;^[6] Etymonline and Klein date the noun to 1941, in the works of the U.S. microbiologist Selman Waksman, the discoverer of streptomycin,^[4][8] and Barnhart to 1944 and Merriam-Webster to 1943.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1858 – opposed to the idea that life exists in the deep sea (obsolete by 1883).^[2]
• 1891 – killing or inhibiting the growth of microorganisms.^[2][5]
• 1892 – noun, a substance that kills or inhibits microorganisms.^[2]
• 1941 – the noun in the writings of Selman Waksman.^[4][8]
• 1943 – the noun, according to Merriam-Webster.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A substance, produced by a microorganism such as a fungus or made synthetically, that kills or checks the growth of other microorganisms, especially bacteria, and is used to treat infections: The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for the chest infection.^[9][5][2]

Adjective

1. Of, relating to, or using antibiotics: antibiotic treatment.^[9][5]
2. Killing or inhibiting the growth of microorganisms.^[2][5][6]
3. (obsolete, 1858–1883) In biology, opposed to the idea that life can exist in the depths of the sea.^[2][6]

Word family

• antibiotically

Related words

• abiotic
• antibiosis
• gnotobiotic
• xenobiotic
• biotic
• probiotic
• symbiotic
• biology

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins