Etymologically
Log in

anus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 01:14. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˈeɪ.nəs/[1]

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

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