dorsal

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dorsal,^[2] borrowed from Medieval Latin dorsālis,^[3][4][2][5] which stands for Latin dorsuālis (“of the back”),^[6][4][7][8] from dorsum (“back”).^[3][4][6][9] Barnhart takes it through Middle French dorsal from Late Latin,^[10] and Etymonline and Hoad allow Old French dorsal as a source beside the Latin;^[6][7] the OED only compares the French word, recorded from the 13th–14th century.^[3] The Latin noun dorsum is of uncertain origin.^[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Back, rear; of a cutting instrument, having a back, that is, only one cutting edge: probably before 1425, in a Middle English translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.^[2][10] The OED's first record of the knife sense is in Robert Copland's Questyonary of Cyrurgyens (probably 1541).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a surgeons' term, and the sense "having one edge" was obsolete by the mid 16th century.^[9][3] The anatomical sense, "of or on the back of an animal", is first recorded in Chambers's Cyclopaedia,^[10][3] dated 1727 by Barnhart and Merriam-Webster and 1728 by the OED.^[10][11][3] From the early 19th century it was applied in zoology and botany to the back or outer surface of any organ,^[3] usually in contrast with ventral.^[3][12] In 1933 Leonard Bloomfield used it in phonetics for sounds made with the back of the tongue.^[3] As a noun it became short for a dorsal fin or a dorsal vertebra (1831),^[3] and in church use a variant of dossal, a hanging behind an altar (1870).^[3][13]

Timeline

• probably before 1425 – back, rear; of a knife, having one edge.^[2][10]
• c. 1541 – of a knife, having a back (now obsolete).^[3]
• 1727 – anatomy, of or on the back.^[10][11]
• 1808 – of the back or outer surface of any organ.^[3]
• 1828 – ridged like an animal's back (rare).^[3]
• 1831 – noun, a dorsal fin or vertebra.^[3]
• 1870 – noun, a dossal.^[3]
• 1933 – phonetics, made with the back of the tongue.^[3]
• 1964 – noun, a dorsal sound.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Anatomy, zoology: of, on or near the back of the body or of a body part; opposed to ventral: The shark's dorsal fin cut through the water.^[12][11][4]
2. Botany: on the surface of an organ that faces away from the axis; abaxial.^[4][12]
3. Phonetics: articulated with the back of the tongue, as the k sound.^[12][3]
4. (obsolete) Of a knife, having a back, with only one cutting edge.^[3][9][2]

Noun

1. A dorsal fin or a dorsal vertebra.^[13][3][11]
2. Phonetics: a sound made with the back of the tongue.^[11][3]
3. A dossal, a cloth hung behind an altar.^[13][3]

Word family

• dorsally
• predorsal
• subdorsal
• middorsal
• interdorsal
• ventrodorsal
• dorsal fin
• dorsal root

Related words

• dossier
• endorse
• indorse
• tabes dorsalis
• dorsum
• dossal
• doss
• ventral

References

1. ^ a b 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 h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c 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 d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap