artery

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English arterie,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin artēria (“windpipe; artery”),^{[4][5][6][7][8]} partly through Anglo-Norman arterie and Old French artaire, recorded from 1213.^[4][6][5][9] The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek ἀρτηρία (artēría, “windpipe; artery”).^{[4][6][10][2]} The OED derives the Greek word from ἀρτήρ (artḗr, “an instrument for lifting or carrying”), from αἴρω (aírō, “to raise, lift up”);^[4] SOED, the Oxford Dictionary of English, Hoad and Klein call that derivation probable,^{[8][11][7][10]} and Ayto and Etymonline relate the word to aorta, from the same verb.^[12][6] The American Heritage Dictionary refers it to Proto-Indo-European *wer-.^[2] In antiquity it was sometimes explained from ἀήρ (aḗr, “air”), in keeping with the belief that arteries carried air.^[4][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both the windpipe and a blood vessel carrying blood away from the heart: before 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The ancients regarded the arteries as air ducts branching from the windpipe, because they contain no blood after death.^{[4][6][5][13]} Medieval writers, following Galen, took them for a separate system carrying the "vital spirits".^[6][13] English used artery for the windpipe, also called the rough artery, from the 14th century,^[6][4] until the mid 17th century: Bacon wrote in 1626 that the lungs expel air "through the artery, throat and mouth".^[12][8] The figurative sense of a channel carrying life and sustenance is recorded from 1574,^[4] that of a main channel in a branching system of communication from 1748,^[4] of a large river from 1787 (1805 in Etymonline),^[4][6] and of railways from 1844.^[6] From 1843 artery was also a verb, to supply with arteries.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1398 – the windpipe; a blood vessel leading from the heart.^[4][5]
• 1574 – figuratively, a channel conveying life and sustenance.^[4]
• 1621 – a ligament (obsolete by 1658).^[4]
• 1748 – a main channel in a system of communication.^[4]
• 1787 – chiefly in the US, a major river of a river system.^[4]
• 1843 – verb, to provide with arteries.^[4]
• 1844 – of railways.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of the thick-walled vessels that carry blood from the heart to the rest of the body.^[14][3][4]
2. A main road, river or other channel in a branching system of transport or communication.^[14][15][4]
3. (obsolete) The windpipe.^[8][6]

Related words

• arteriole
• arterial
• aorta
• arsis

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
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. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House