carotid

Etymology

In the OED it is borrowed from Medieval Latin carotides (“the carotid arteries”), a plural recorded in the 15th century and already cited as a Greek word by the Roman medical writer Celsus.^[2] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English give it as from French carotide or modern Latin,^[3][4] Merriam-Webster as from French or Greek,^[5] and Barnhart as from Greek, perhaps under the influence of the earlier French noun carotide (1541).^[6] The Latin plural is from Ancient Greek καρωτίδες (karōtídes, “the carotid arteries”), the plural of καρωτίς (karōtís),^[2][7] from καρόω (karóō, “to plunge into deep sleep, to stupefy”),^[2][8][7] because pressing these arteries was believed to cause stupor or unconsciousness.^[8][7][3] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart connect it with κάρος (káros, “heavy sleep, stupor”),^[5][6] and the OED suggests that the verb itself may come from κάρα (kára, “head”), as if "to have a heavy head".^[2] Klein instead derives the Greek word directly from kára, head, and considers the link with sleep a later explanation based on a mistaken belief;^[9] Etymonline also allows that the sleep story may be a folk etymology, in which case it comes from the word for head, which is related to κρανίον (kraníon, “skull”), from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“horn; head”).^[8] According to the OED, the Greek physician Rufus of Ephesus already called the explanation inaccurate, putting the drowsiness down to pressure on the nearby nerves, and Galen said the name came from a mistake of the followers of Hippocrates.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the two great arteries of the neck that carry blood to the head: 1667, in a paper by E. King in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.^[2][6] Barnhart finds the Greek-form plural carotides in English in 1543,^[10] and Etymonline dates the adjective to the 1540s.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Used first of the arteries themselves, the adjective was extended by 1842 to parts lying near them, such as the carotid canal through the temporal bone.^[2] The noun, a carotid artery, is recorded from 1741, in Alexander Monro's anatomy,^[2] and Barnhart takes it as developed in English from the adjective.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave the word only as an adjective, describing the two arteries that rise from the trunk of the aorta.^[11]

Timeline

• 1667 – adjective, of the carotid arteries.^[2][6]
• 1741 – noun, a carotid artery.^[2][6]
• 1842 – adjective, lying near the carotid arteries (carotid canal).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Either of the two main arteries that run up the sides of the neck and supply blood to the head; a carotid artery.^[12][2]

Adjective

1. Of, relating to, or lying near a carotid artery: a carotid pulse.^[12][5][2]

Word family

• carotidal
• intercarotid
• carotid sinus

Related words

• cerebrum
• cranium

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins