cactus

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cactus, also cactos (in Pliny),^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek κάκτος (káktos), a prickly plant of Sicily, the cardoon,^[2][3][6][7] a word of unknown origin.^[2][3] Partridge thought it probably adapted from an Egyptian word for thorns.^[8] Linnaeus took the Latin word as the genus name of an entirely different group of prickly plants (1737), and the modern English sense follows that use;^[2][7][6][9] Etymonline says he thought them related to the classical plant.^[3] French has the word as a thistle from 1562 and as a succulent plant from 1788.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cardoon or the artichoke: 1597, in John Gerard's Herball.^[2] Barnhart dates this sense to 1607,^[9][5] and Etymonline to about 1600.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The classical sense, a cardoon, lasted until the 19th century.^[2][10] The current sense, a succulent plant of the family Cactaceae, is first recorded in 1738, in a letter of Peter Collinson to John Bartram,^[2] although Merriam-Webster dates it to 1761, Barnhart to 1767 and Etymonline to 1769.^[11][5][3] In Australian and New Zealand slang, the cactus was a state of trouble from 1925,^[2] and cactus as a predicative adjective has meant broken, ruined or dead since 1945, after the invasive prickly pear, once a menace in Australia.^[2][12][13] In drug slang it is also mescaline or peyote (1969).^[12]

Timeline

• 1597 – the cardoon or artichoke (obsolete by 1854).^[2]
• 1737 – Linnaeus's genus name Cactus.^[2]
• 1738 – a succulent plant of the Cactaceae.^[2]
• 1925 – Australian and New Zealand slang, the cactus, trouble.^[2]
• 1945 – Australian slang adjective, broken or ruined.^[2]
• 1969 – drug slang, mescaline or peyote.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of a family of succulent plants of the dry regions of the Americas, with thick fleshy stems, spines or scales in place of leaves, and often brightly coloured flowers.^[13][11][2]
2. (obsolete, 1597–1854) The cardoon.^[2][10]

Adjective

1. (Australian slang) Broken, ruined or no longer working; of a person, worn out or dead.^[13][2][12]

Word family

• cactuslike
• cactus dahlia

Related words

• cactaceous
• cardoon

Usage notes

The plural is cacti or cactuses, and Merriam-Webster also allows cactus.^[11][13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
9. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins