Etymologically
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appendix

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:30. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /əˈpɛn.dɪks/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin appendix (“appendage, addition, supplement”),[2][3][4] which in post-classical Latin also meant a small prolongation of an organ (13th century) and the vermiform appendix (by 1559),[2] and was also spelled apendix and appendex.[2] It is formed from appendō (“to hang upon, attach”) and the noun suffix -ix,[2][5][6] and the verb from ad- (“to”) and pendō (“to hang”), which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *(s)pen- (“to draw, stretch, spin”).[3] Some early English forms follow French appendice, recorded in Old French for a dependency (1233) and in Middle French for a small prolongation of an organ (1541);[2] Barnhart and Etymonline think the anatomical sense in English was perhaps borrowed from French or influenced by it.[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something added that is not material, such as a consequence or corollary: 1542, as appendex, in Barnhart,[4] and 1542 in Merriam-Webster;[6] the revised OED's first record is from 1547, in Andrew Borde's Breviary of Health.[2]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that the word was first used for extra matter at the end of a book, and that the anatomical term appears early in the 17th century.[7] The sense "section added to a book or document" is recorded from 1549,[2][4] and that of an extra or peripheral part of anything from 1559.[2] In 1589 it was used of a person who was a subordinate or hanger-on, a sense now rare.[2] Helkiah Crooke's Mikrokosmographia (1615) used it both for a subsidiary part of a bodily organ and for the narrow blind tube opening out of the caecum,[2][4] which became its main medical sense,[3][5] and gave appendicitis (1886) and appendectomy (1894–95).[4] The older sense of a consequence died out by 1749.[2] In 19th-century American ballooning an appendix was the tube through which gas passed into and out of the balloon.[2] The verb, to add as an appendix, is recorded from 1757.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 1542 – appendex, something added, a consequence (obsolete by 1749).[4][6]
  • 1549 – a section of extra material at the end of a book or document.[2][4]
  • 1559 – an extra or peripheral part of something.[2]
  • 1589 – a subordinate or dependant (now rare).[2]
  • 1615 – a subsidiary part of an organ; the vermiform appendix.[2][4]
  • 1757 – verb, to add as an appendix.[2][6]
  • 1875 – the inflation tube of a gas balloon.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A section of extra material at the end of a book or document, such as tables or notes: The survey results are given in an appendix.[5][8][6]
  2. Something added or attached that is not essential; an appendage.[5][8][6]
  3. (anatomy) The vermiform appendix, a small blind tube attached to the caecum of the large intestine; also any smaller part attached to an organ.[5][8][2]
  4. (chiefly US) In gas ballooning, the open tube through which gas enters and leaves the balloon.[2]
  5. (obsolete, 1547–1749) A consequence or subsidiary fact.[2][9]

Verb

  1. To add something as an appendix; to append.[6][2]

Word family

  • appendicitis
  • appendectomy

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes an appendix, additional information without which the book is still complete, from a supplement, issued with the book or separately to give corrections, later information and the like; the Latin plural appendices is used especially in scholarly writing.[10] Collins and Merriam-Webster give both appendices and appendixes.[8][6]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House