astringent

Etymology

It is borrowed from French astringent,^[2][3][4] from Latin astringēns, the present participle of astringō (“to bind fast, tighten, contract”),^[2][5][6][7] from ad- (“to”) and stringō (“to draw tight, bind”).^[5][7][6][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged calls the French route probable,^[8] Hoad leaves the choice open,^[9] and Barnhart, Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary go directly to Latin.^[6][5][7] The American Heritage Dictionary and Etymonline trace the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *streig- (“to stroke, rub, press”).^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Able to draw together or contract the soft tissues of the body: about 1541, in R. Copland's translation of Galen's fourth book of the Therapeutics.^[2][6][8] Etymonline has the 1540s.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a medical term.^[2][3] As a noun for a medicine or substance of this kind it is recorded from 1620 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged, the 1620s in Etymonline, and 1626, in Bacon, in the OED.^[8][5][2] A sense "constipated" appears in 1662 and did not last.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as binding and contracting, the opposite of laxative, and in his 1773 edition added that it was sometimes said of tastes that seem to contract the mouth.^[10] The figurative sense, "severe, austere", is recorded from 1821, in Byron's Don Juan.^[2][3][9] Today it also describes cosmetic lotions and anything sharp or bracing.^[8][11]

Timeline

• c. 1541 – adjective, contracting body tissues.^[2][6][8]
• 1620 – noun, a medicine or substance that contracts tissue.^[8] The OED has 1626.^[2]
• 1662 – adjective, constipated (obsolete).^[2]
• 1821 – adjective, figurative, severe, austere.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Causing body tissues to contract, so that it checks bleeding or the discharge of fluid; styptic: an astringent mouthwash.^[11][8][2]
2. Of a taste, tending to make the mouth pucker: The unripe fruit was too astringent to eat.^[8][10]
3. Sharp or invigorating, as of air or a smell.^[11][8]
4. Severe, harsh or austere: His astringent reviews made him few friends.^[11][2][3]

Noun

1. A medicine or other substance that contracts tissue.^[11][8][2]
2. A liquid cosmetic that cleans the skin and tightens the pores.^[8]

Word family

• astringency
• astringently
• nonastringent
• subastringent

Related words

• astringe
• astriction
• strict
• stringent
• strain
• stricture
• constrict

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins