digest

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English digest,^[2] borrowed from Late Latin dīgesta, the name of Justinian's compilation of Roman law,^[3][4][5] in classical Latin a collection of writings arranged under headings, literally "things arranged",^[4][6][7][8] the neuter plural of dīgestus.^[9][3] The MED also names Medieval Latin dīgestum and Old French digeste as sources.^[2] The verb, Middle English digesten, was taken from the past participle dīgestus^[2][3][6] (or, for the OED and Hoad, from its stem)^[9][7][10] of dīgerō (“to carry asunder, separate, divide, distribute, dissolve, digest”);^[9] the OED compares the 15th-century digester.^[9] The Latin verb is formed from dis- (“apart”) and gerō (“to carry, bear”),^{[9][3][11][12]} a verb of uncertain origin,^[6] so that it first meant "to carry apart".^[3][12] The same Latin verb gave digestion, digestible and digestive.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, the Digest, the body of Roman law compiled by order of the emperor Justinian: before 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon, where Justinian "made and restored þe lawes of digest".^[2][9][6] As a verb, to digest food: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, which says that a hard yolk comforts greatly "whanne it is digest".^[2][6][9]

Semantic evolution

Ayto explains that the Latin verb first meant "to divide, distribute"; this led through "dissolve" to the bodily sense of digesting food, while another branch of "distribute" gave "orderly arrangement".^[8] The OED notes that the English senses did not appear in the order in which they had developed in Latin: the legal noun came first.^[9][8][13] The noun also meant digestion from 1398 to 1602.^[9] Its general sense, a methodically arranged collection or summary of written material, dates from 1555,^[9][3] and a condensed abstract of a body of law from Francis Bacon, before 1626.^[9][6] In 1922 digest became the name of a periodical made up of condensed articles from elsewhere.^[9] The verb, used of food from Trevisa on and recorded in the OED from 1483,^[2][9] was also used for arranging methodically or classifying (1482), for thinking over in the mind (1488), and since 1553 for putting up with something, to "swallow" or "stomach" it.^[9] Etymonline dates the sense "to take in mentally" from the mid-15th century.^[3] A Scottish adjective digest, grave or settled, was used in the 16th century.^[9] In American campus slang of the late 1990s, to digest someone was to put up with them.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1387 – noun, Justinian's Digest of Roman law.^[2][9][6]
• before 1398 – verb, to digest food; noun, digestion (obsolete after 1602).^[2][9][6]
• 1482 – verb, to arrange methodically, classify.^[9]
• 1488 – verb, to ponder, consider.^[9]
• 1553 – verb, to put up with, endure.^[9]
• 1555 – noun, a methodically arranged collection or summary.^[9][3]
• before 1626 – noun, a condensed abstract of laws, in Bacon.^[9][6]
• 1875 – verb, of insect-eating plants, in Darwin.^[9]
• 1918 – noun, in biology, a substance produced by digestion.^[9]
• 1922 – noun, a periodical of condensed articles.^[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A summary or systematically arranged collection of written material, often condensed: a monthly digest of new court rulings.
2. A periodical made up of shortened versions of articles published elsewhere.
3. (law) A systematic compilation of laws, statutes or decisions.
4. the Digest: the collection of Roman law made by order of Justinian.
5. (biology) A substance obtained by digestion.

Verb

1. To break down food in the stomach and intestines so that the body can absorb it: Snakes can take days to digest a large meal.
2. To take in and understand information: She needed an evening to digest the news.
3. To arrange methodically; to classify or reduce to a summary.
4. (chemistry) To soften or break down by heat, moisture or chemicals.
5. (archaic) To put up with; to tolerate.

Word family

• digestant
• digester
• digestible
• indigested
• predigest

Related words

• digestion
• digestive
• indigestion
• gest

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 e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com