Etymologically
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basal

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈbeɪs(ə)l/[1]

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

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