cortical

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin corticālis (“of or like bark or rind”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin cortex (“bark of a tree”), stem cortic-, and the suffix -ālis.^[4][6][7][8] The Shorter Oxford calls the adjective Medieval Latin.^[9] Hoad relates the Latin noun to corium (“leather”),^[5] and Etymonline takes it from Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to cut”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In botany, belonging to the bark or outer part of a plant or one of its organs: 1672, in Nehemiah Grew's Anatomy of Vegetables.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1671,^[4] Etymonline to the 1670s^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1665–75.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From 1677 it was used in anatomy and zoology for the outer layer of an animal organ, especially of the brain, the kidneys, the teeth and the hair,^[2] as opposed to the medullary part.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "barky; belonging to the outer part; belonging to the rind; outward", quoting Cheyne on the cortical part of the brain.^[10] A figurative sense, external or superficial, was used from 1685 to 1856.^[2][9] Modern dictionaries define it chiefly by the cerebral cortex, for what involves or results from its action.^[4]

Timeline

• 1672 – in botany, of the bark or outer part of a plant.^[2]
• 1677 – in anatomy and zoology, of the outer layer of an animal organ.^[2]
• 1685 – figuratively, external, superficial (obsolete after 1856).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or made up of a cortex, especially the cerebral cortex: cortical neurons.^[4][9][2]
2. Of or located in the outer layer of an organ or a plant part, such as the bark or rind.^[4][2]
3. Involving or resulting from the action of the cerebral cortex.^[4]
4. (obsolete, 1685–1856) External, superficial.^[2][9]

Word family

• cortically
• adrenocortical
• intercortical
• neocortical
• noncortical
• subcortical

Related words

• cortex
• cortico-
• decorticate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.