Etymologically
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feces

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfiːsiːz/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fece, plural fecis, fecez, also singular fex,[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin faecēs (“sediment, dregs”),[4][5][6][3][7] the plural of faex, which meant grounds, sediment and the lees of wine.[5][4] The MED also suggests an unrecorded Old French *fece.[2] The Latin word is of unknown origin.[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both senses are found together in the Middle English translation of Lanfranc's Science of Surgery, before 1400: the dregs or sediment of something, and, in the plural, excrement.[2][4] The OED's first records are later: sediment before 1475, and excrement before 1625, in John Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas.[7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word belonged to medicine and alchemy, for the sediment of wine, wax or blood as well as for the waste of the bowels.[2] Etymonline says the sense "human excrement" is from the 1630s and is not found in classical Latin, where the word meant dregs, as in faex populi, the dregs of the people.[5] Johnson (1755) gave "dregs; lees; sediment" first,[8] and Merriam-Webster still lists that sense, though the bodily one is now the usual meaning.[3]

Timeline

  • before 1400 – Middle English fecis, dregs, sediment; also excrement.[2][4]
  • before 1475 – sediment, dregs, lees.[7]
  • before 1625 – waste matter discharged from the bowels.[7] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1630s.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Waste matter discharged from the bowels through the anus; excrement.[3][9][7]
  2. Sediment left after infusion or distillation; dregs.[3][7][8]
  • defecate
  • faecal
  • fecal
  • feculent

Usage notes

Feces is the usual American spelling;[9][10][11] British and Commonwealth English writes faeces.[9][10][11] The word is plural.[9][4]

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press