apical

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from New Latin apicālis,^[2][3] formed from Latin apex (“summit, tip”) (stem apic-) and -ālis.^[2][3] The OED, Barnhart and the Oxford Dictionary of English instead take it as formed in English from the Latin stem and the suffix -al.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} The OED explains the Latin noun as originally a classical Latin name for the small rod on top of a flamen's cap, also used for a peak or tip.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or belonging to an apex; at the summit or tip: 1828, in Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology.^[4][5] Etymonline dates it to 1827,^[9] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1806 as its first known use.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective is first recorded in entomology, in Kirby and Spence.^[4] From 1899, in a translation of Viëtor's Elements of Phonetics, it was used for sounds made with the tip of the tongue,^[4][7] and the noun, an apical sound, followed by 1952.^[2]

Timeline

• 1828 – at or of an apex or tip.^[4][5]
• 1899 – in phonetics, made with the tip of the tongue.^[4]
• 1952 – noun, an apical sound.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. At, near or forming the apex or tip of something: the apical bud of the shoot.^[2][3][4]
2. (phonetics) Of a consonant: made with the tip of the tongue, as /t/ or /d/.^[2][3][4]

Noun

1. (phonetics) A sound made with the tip of the tongue.^[2][4]

Word family

• apically
• abapical
• periapical
• subapical
• apical meristem

Related words

• apex

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com