Etymologically
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digestion

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Pronunciation

  • /daɪˈd͡ʒɛst͡ʃən/, /dɪˈd͡ʒɛst͡ʃən/[1]

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

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.