anus

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ānus (“ring, circle; anus”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} first recorded in Middle English as anus;^[7][3] Barnhart and Etymonline give the route as through Old French anus.^[8][9] The OED compares French anus, used in anatomy in Old French from 1314.^[2] The Latin word originally meant a ring, and the opening was named for its shape;^{[9][10][11][5]} in the same way Greek δακτύλιος (daktúlios, “ring; anus”) comes from δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”).^[9][10][12] The OED traces the Latin word to the same Indo-European base as a word for necklace or ring in Armenian, and perhaps Old Irish áinne (“ring”), although the Irish word may equally be a loan from Latin;^[2][6] Barnhart and Etymonline reconstruct Proto-Indo-European *āno- (“ring”).^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The opening at the lower end of the alimentary canal: about 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, where another manuscript has fundement instead.^[2][7][8] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date the word only to the 1650s,^[9][13] and Collins to the 16th century.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its anatomical sense since its first use in a surgical text.^[2][7] From 1730 to 1880 botanists also used it for an opening at the base of a flower, a rare sense now obsolete.^[2] The related adjective anal is recorded from the 18th century, from New Latin.^[4][14] Merriam-Webster gives the plural as anuses, or sometimes the Latin ani.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – the opening at the end of the alimentary canal.^[2][7][8] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date the word to the 1650s.^[9][13]
• 1730 – in botany, an opening at the base of a flower (obsolete by 1880).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The opening at the end of the alimentary canal, through which solid waste (faeces) leaves the body.^{[14][6][2][5]}

Word family

• anilingus

Related words

• anal
• annular

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ 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)
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins