contusion

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English contusioun, also conteschown,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French contusion,^[4][3] a learned borrowing from Latin contūsiō (“a crushing, bruising”).^[4][5] The Middle English Dictionary and Etymonline take the English word directly from Latin.^[2][6] The noun of action is formed on contūsus, the past participle of contundō (“to beat hard, pound”),^[7][3] which comes from com-, here perhaps an intensive prefix, and tundō (“to beat”).^[6][7] Etymonline traces the simple verb to Proto-Indo-European *(s)tud-e- (“to beat, strike, push, thrust”),^[6] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate compares Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (stautan, “to strike”),^[8] and Ayto thinks it may be related to stint and stunt.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bruising, or a bruise: before 1400, in a Middle English translation of Lanfranc's surgery, whose margin has Wondis made with conteschoun for the Latin ex contusione.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED dated this text about 1400,^[9] and the current OED dates it perhaps before 1500.^[5] Barnhart has before 1400,^[4] Etymonline about 1400.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Latin medical language the noun already meant a bruise,^[6] and the English word began in surgical writing: a translation of Guy de Chauliac calls a contusion a rending made deep in muscular flesh by something that bruises.^[2] Ayto says that it has always kept this physical sense of bruising in English, apart from isolated uses for beating in general in the 17th and 18th centuries, probably scholarly archaisms.^[7] The OED also has a sense "pounding small" from 1617 to 1764;^[5][10] Johnson (1755) still lists the act of beating, the state of being beaten, and a bruise, and quotes Boyle on glass reduced to powder "by contusion".^[11] A verb contusion, always in the passive, followed in 1871, from French contusionner.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1400 – bruising, or a bruise, in a translation of Lanfranc's surgery.^[2][4]
• c. 1425 – a deep rending of muscular flesh, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac.^[2]
• before 1616 – an injury from a blow that leaves the skin unbroken, in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2.^[5] The 1989 edition of the OED dated it 1593.^[9]
• 1617 – pounding or beating small, in Woodall's Surgions Mate (obsolete by 1764).^[5]
• 1626 – the action of striking, as with a blunt heavy body, in Bacon.^[5]
• 1871 – verb, to bruise, only in the passive.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bruise: an injury from a blow, with bleeding and swelling in the tissue under the surface,^[3] usually leaving the skin unbroken: The cyclist came away with contusions on both knees.^[12][5]
2. The act of bruising, or the state of being bruised.^[3][5]
3. (obsolete, 1617–1764) The pounding of a substance into small pieces.^[5][10]

Word family

• contusioned

Related words

• contuse
• obtuse

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
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. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins