asymptomatic

Etymology

It is formed from English a- + symptomatic, with the prefix meaning "not, without".^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Symptomatic (1698) is from French symptomatique or Late Latin symptōmāticus, from the stem of symptōma, the source of symptom.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Without symptoms: 1856, according to Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[2][4] The OED's first quotation is from the Lancet of 1909,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford and Dictionary.com date the word to the mid-20th century and the 1930s.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The word has remained a medical term, used of a disease that produces no symptoms and of a person who shows none.^[3][7][4] From 1941 it was also used as a noun for such a person, and with the for asymptomatic people as a group.^[3]

Timeline

• 1856 – without symptoms.^[2][4] The OED's first quotation is from 1909.^[3]
• 1941 – noun, a person who shows no symptoms of a disease.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a disease or infection, producing no symptoms; of a person, showing no symptoms of a disease or condition.^[7][4][3][5]

Noun

1. A person who shows no symptoms or clinical signs of a disease.^[3]

Word family

• asymptomatically

Related words

• symptom
• symptomatic
• presymptomatic

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins