emaciated

Etymology

It is formed from English emaciate + -ed,^[2][3] the past-participle adjective of the verb.^[4] The verb emaciate is recorded from 1646 in the OED,^[2] and Barnhart finds it implied before 1626 in Bacon's use of the present participle.^[5] It is from Latin ēmaciātus (“wasted away”), the past participle of ēmaciō (“to make lean, cause to waste away”),^{[2][4][5][6][7]} which is formed from ē- (“out”), a form of ex-, and maciēs (“leanness”),^[2][4][5][8] from macer (“lean, thin”),^[4][5][7] the source of meager.^[6][5][7] Klein, the American Heritage Dictionary and Dictionary.com analyse the Latin verb instead as the prefix with maciō (“to make thin”).^[6][9][3] Barnhart thinks the borrowing was probably helped by French émacié (“emaciated”).^[5] Etymonline traces macer to Proto-Indo-European *mak- (“long, thin”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Made lean, wasted: 1665, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1660s,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1655–65.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb was used both transitively, to make lean (from 1650), and intransitively, to become lean (from 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne);^[2] the intransitive use is now rare, and the verb lives on chiefly in this adjective.^[10] Johnson (1755) defined it "to waste; to deprive of flesh", quoting Graunt's Bills of Mortality on those who die of consumption "emaciated and lean".^[11] A shorter adjective emaciate, straight from the Latin participle, is recorded from 1676, in Evelyn, but is now rare.^[2][10][7] The OED notes figurative use of emaciated too,^[2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged records the senses "meager, narrow" and "enfeebled, attenuated", used of things such as a weakened version of a bill.^[7]

Timeline

• 1665 – made lean, wasted; also figuratively.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Extremely thin and weak, especially from hunger or illness; wasted: The rescued dog was so emaciated that it could hardly stand.^[12][7][2]
2. Poor, meager or narrow: an emaciated vision of what the town could become.^[7][2]
3. Weakened or attenuated: The council approved only an emaciated version of the plan.^[7]

Word family

• unemaciated

Related words

• emaciate
• emaciation
• meager

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins