Etymologically
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cartilage

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 00:47. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɑː.tɪl.ɪd͡ʒ/, /ˈkɑːt.lɪd͡ʒ/[1]
  • US: /ˈkɑɹ.təl.ɪd͡ʒ/, /ˈkɑɹt.lɪd͡ʒ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cartilage,[2][3] borrowed from Old French cartilage[3][4][2] and directly borrowed from Latin cartilāgō (“cartilage, gristle”).[5][4][2] Barnhart takes the French form as Middle French,[5] and the OED, which first records the word in 1541, as 16th-century French.[6] The Latin word is possibly related to crātis (“wickerwork”),[5][4][7][8] the source of crate;[5][8] Etymonline and Webster's Third connect it further with hurdle.[4][9] Chambers also compares a Greek word for a basket.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gristle, the firm elastic tissue of the body: before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, which explains that cartilage is of the nature of bone but softer.[2][5] Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus (before 1398) had already given cartilago as the Latin name of gristle.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its anatomical meaning since its first use; from the start it also named a structure made of the tissue, such as the gristly parts of the nose or ear.[2][6] The OED, whose entry is not fully revised, starts both senses in 1541, in Robert Copland's Questyonary of Cyrurgyens, also from Chauliac.[6] A transferred use for the coats of an onion is recorded only in 1563.[6] The English word long stood beside the native gristle, which the Chauliac translation itself gives as a gloss.[2]

Timeline

  • before 1425 – gristle; also a gristly part of the body.[2][5] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1350–1400,[11] and the OED's first records of both senses are from 1541.[6]
  • 1541 – the adjective cartilaginous.[5]
  • 1563 – the coats of an onion (obsolete).[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A tough, elastic connective tissue that forms most of the skeleton of vertebrate embryos and in adults remains in the joints, ear, nose and larynx; gristle.[3][7][12]
  2. A structure made of this tissue: the cartilages of the ribs.[6][7][3]

Word family

  • fibrocartilage
  • cartilaginous
  • hyaline cartilage
  • thyroid cartilage

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
  10. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins