cystic

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cystique,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in Paré in the 16th century,^[2][3] from New Latin cysticus,^[2][3][6] from Ancient Greek κύστις (kústis, “bladder, pouch”).^[3][2] The Oxford Dictionary of English allows a borrowing directly from Modern Latin,^[7] and Dictionary.com analyses it as cyst with the suffix -ic.^[8] Etymonline calls the Greek word of unknown origin.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or connected with the gall bladder, as in cystic duct: 1634, in Thomas Johnson's translation of Paré's surgery.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word first described the gall bladder and its vessels.^[2][7] From 1714 it was used in pathology for something of the nature of a cyst or containing cysts,^[2][3][9] and later for things enclosed in a cyst, such as a larval worm (1859).^[2] In 1810 cystic oxide named a substance found in urinary stones,^[2] and the adjective has referred to the urinary bladder since 1881.^[2] The disease name cystic fibrosis was coined in 1938.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1634 – of the gall bladder.^[2][4][3]
• 1714 – of the nature of a cyst; containing cysts.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense to 1713.^[3]
• 1810 – cystic oxide, cystic calculus.^[2]
• 1859 – enclosed in a cyst.^[2]
• 1881 – of the urinary bladder.^[2]
• 1938 – cystic fibrosis.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or like a cyst; containing or made up of cysts: a cystic swelling.^[10][6][2]
2. Enclosed in a cyst; encysted.^[10][6][2]
3. Relating to the gallbladder or the urinary bladder.^[10][6][2]

Word family

• fibrocystic
• intercystic
• polycystic
• precystic
• cystic duct
• cystic fibrosis

Related words

• cyst
• cystitis

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins