basal

Etymology

It is formed from English base + -al.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The noun base is from Old French base,^[7] from Latin basis (“foundation”),^[4][7] from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis, “a step, that on which one stands”),^[4][7] from βαίνω (baínō, “to go, walk, step”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, a part at the base, in 1620, in William Folkingham's Brachigraphy.^[2][5] Barnhart dates the word to 1610, in the phrase basal area, and thinks it was formed again in 1828, when it next appears in print;^[8][9] the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the adjective to about 1645.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective "at or forming the base" is recorded by the OED from 1828, in Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology,^[2] and by Etymonline from 1826.^[4] It became a technical word of the sciences: in botany for leaves rising from the base of the stem or parts at the base of the ovary, and in crystallography for the plane parallel to the base.^[2][10][5] The figurative sense "fundamental" followed in 1866.^[2][3] In biology and medicine it describes the minimum activity needed to keep an organism alive, as in basal metabolism,^[5][3] and the cells of the lowest layer of the epithelium, which give their name to basal cell carcinoma.^[3] The noun has been used for the basal plates of crinoids and other echinoderms,^[2][5] and in American schools a basal, short for basal reader, is a book for teaching beginners to read.^[5]

Timeline

• 1610 – in basal area, according to Barnhart.^[8]
• 1620 – noun, a basal part.^[2][5]
• 1826 – adjective, situated at a base, according to Etymonline.^[4]
• 1828 – adjective, pertaining to or forming the base.^[2][8]
• 1866 – figurative, fundamental.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. At, of or forming the base of something: the basal leaves of a dandelion.^{[10][11][5][2]}
2. Fundamental or essential; basic.^[10][11][5]
3. Relating to the minimum activity needed to keep an organism alive, as in basal metabolism.^[5][3]
4. Used for teaching beginners, especially in reading: a basal reader.^[5]

Noun

1. A basal part or structure, especially one of the plates at the base of the cup of a crinoid or other echinoderm.^[5][2]
2. A basal reader.^[5]

Word family

• basally
• prebasal
• basal metabolism
• basal body
• basal cell
• basal cell carcinoma
• basal ganglion
• basal metabolic rate

Related words

• base
• basis
• basic

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins