consumptive

Etymology

As a noun it is borrowed from Medieval Latin consumptivum (“a medicine that reduces or removes morbid humours”), recorded in 1363 in Guy de Chauliac, the noun use of the neuter of the adjective consumptivus (“wasteful, destructive”).^[2] As an adjective it is partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman consumptif and Middle French consumptif (modern French consomptif), and partly the Medieval Latin adjective itself, which was common in British sources from the 12th century.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin word is formed from cōnsūmpt-, the past participle stem of cōnsūmō (“to consume”), the source of consume, and the suffix -īvus;^[2][6][7] the OED and Etymonline also see an English formation from the Latin stem and -ive,^[2][6] and the Merriam-Webster Unabridged derives it from consumption.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A medicine that reduces or removes morbid humours or diseased tissue: before 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[2][9] The adjective is first used of such a medicine in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's surgery from before 1425.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The word began in medieval medicine, for a drug or remedy that "consumed" morbid humours, a use that died out in the 16th to 18th centuries.^[2][9] From the late 16th century it was attached to the wasting disease consumption, pulmonary tuberculosis: first for what is characteristic of it (1588), then for a person suffering from it (1648 as an adjective, 1666 as a noun).^[2][8][6] The OED notes that these senses have no French parallel until 1672 and 1808, although the Medieval Latin adjective was already used of the disease in a 14th-century British source.^[2] In the 17th century it also took the general sense "tending to consume, wasteful, destructive" (1652; 1647 in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged),^[2][8] and in 1680 the economic sense, relating to the consumption of goods.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave "destructive; wasting; exhausting" first, quoting Addison on "a long consumptive war", and "diseased with a consumption" second.^[10] The senses relating to the disease are now chiefly historical.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1398 – noun, a medicine that reduces morbid humours (obsolete by 1739).^[2][9]
• before 1425 – adjective, of a medicine, reducing morbid humours (obsolete by 1579).^[2][9]
• 1588 – characteristic of the disease consumption.^[2]
• 1648 – affected with or inclined to consumption.^[2]
• 1649 – figuratively, weakened, wasted.^[2]
• 1651 – of an offering, to be consumed by fire (obsolete by 1711).^[2]
• 1652 – tending to consume or use up, especially wastefully.^[2] The Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1647.^[8]
• 1666 – noun, a person with consumption, in Gideon Harvey's Morbus Anglicus.^[2][8][6]
• 1680 – relating to economic consumption.^[2]
• 1753 – financially weakened, in Smollett (obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to, suffering from or suggesting consumption, especially tuberculosis of the lungs: a consumptive pallor.^{[8][11][12][2]}
2. Tending to consume or use up; wasteful or destructive.^{[8][11][12][2]}
3. Relating to the consumption of economic goods.^[8][2]
4. Wasted or weakened, as if by sickness.^[8][2]
5. (obsolete, before 1425–1579) Of a medicine: reducing or removing morbid humours.^[2][9]

Noun

1. A person suffering from consumption.^{[8][11][12][2]}
2. (obsolete, 1398–1739) A medicine that reduces morbid humours or diseased tissue.^[2][9]

Word family

• consumptively
• consumptiveness
• unconsumptive
• nonconsumptive

Related words

• consume
• consumption

References

1. ^ 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 s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g 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)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt