digestion

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English digestioun, also degestion and disgestion,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French digestion (13th century)^[4][3][5] and directly borrowed from Latin dīgestiō (“digestion, arrangement”), with the stem dīgestiōn-.^[3][4][6][7] The Anglo-Norman digestiun, digestion or the ability to digest, is recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century.^[8] The Latin is a noun of action from the past participle dīgestus of dīgerō (“to separate, divide, arrange”),^[3][4][7][9] literally "to carry apart", from dis- (“apart”) and gerō (“to carry”).^[3] It is the noun of the verb digest.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The process by which food is made fit to be taken up by the body: about 1386, in Chaucer's Squire's Tale, where sleep is called "the norice of digestioun".^[4][2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word meant arrangement as well as digestion, from the idea of dividing and distributing,^[3] and English used it for several processes thought of as a kind of "cooking" or maturing.^[4] Medieval physiology spoke of a first, second and third digestion (1398–1659).^[4] From 1398 the word also meant the power of digesting food.^[4][2] Alchemists used it from 1477 to about 1676 for maturing a substance by gentle heat, and chemists since 1612 for soaking a substance in a heated liquid to draw out what dissolves.^[4] Surgeons spoke of the digestion of a wound, its healthy suppuration (1676–1830),^[4][6] and in 1680 Temple used it of maturing plans by careful thought.^[4] The figurative sense of taking in ideas, as from books, is recorded from before 1610,^[4] and Johnson (1755) also defined it as the reduction of ideas to order.^[12] In 1875 Darwin applied it to the similar process in insect-eating plants.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – the digestion of food.^[4][2]
• 1398 – the power of digesting; the first, second and third digestion of old physiology.^[4]
• 1477 – in alchemy, maturing a substance by gentle heat (obsolete by 1676).^[4]
• 1539 – hard, easy or slow of digestion, hard or easy to digest.^[4]
• before 1610 – the taking in of ideas from reading.^[4]
• 1612 – in chemistry, treatment with a heated liquid to extract what dissolves.^[4]
• 1676 – in surgery, the healthy suppuration of a wound (obsolete by 1830).^[4]
• 1875 – the similar process in insect-eating plants.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The process by which food is broken down in the stomach and intestines into simpler substances, chiefly by enzymes, so that the body can absorb it.^[5][6][4]
2. The ability to digest food: Rich sauces never agreed with his digestion.^[6][4][2]
3. The taking in and understanding of ideas or information.^[5][4]
4. In chemistry, the treatment of a material with heat, solvents or chemicals to soften or break it down or to extract part of it.^[5][4]
5. In bacteriology, the breakdown of sewage by bacteria.^[5]
6. (obsolete, 1676–1830) The forming of pus in a wound; suppuration.^[6][4]

Word family

• digestional
• nondigestion
• redigestion
• predigestion

Related words

• digest
• digester
• digestible
• digestive
• gesture
• suggest
• register

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.