fibrous

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin fibrōsus,^[2][3][4] from Latin fibra (“fibre, filament; entrails”),^[3][4][2] the source of fiber.^[3][4] Barnhart thinks the formation was probably prompted by French fibreux,^[4] which the OED compares;^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Johnson take the word directly from the French adjective,^[5][6] and the Shorter Oxford as formed from fibre and -ous.^[7] The Latin noun is of uncertain origin: Etymonline and Barnhart mention a possible link with fīlum (“thread”),^[3][4] and Etymonline also with findō (“to split”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of plants, full of or formed of fibres: 1626, in Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1620s,^[3] but Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1597 for the sense "containing or consisting of fibres".^[5]

Semantic evolution

Bacon applied the word to plants;^[2][4] from 1657 it also described animal bodies, where fibrous tissue is the ordinary connective tissue.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as composed of fibres and quoted Bacon's contrast between fibrous and viscous bodies.^[6] The sense "like a fibre" is recorded from 1707,^[2] the use for minerals and metals from 1794,^[2] and in the 20th century fibrous proteins were named for their long, little-folded molecules (1931).^[2][7] In medicine the word also describes tissue marked by fibrosis.^[5]

Timeline

• 1626 – of plants, full of or formed of fibres.^[2][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the sense to 1597.^[5]
• 1657 – of animal tissue.^[2]
• 1707 – resembling fibre.^[2]
• 1794 – of minerals and metals.^[2]
• 1931 – of proteins with long, little-folded molecules.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Containing, made of or resembling fibres: the fibrous shell of a walnut.^[8][5][2]
2. (medicine) Marked by fibrosis.^[5]
3. Of a mineral: able to be split into fibres.^[5][2]
4. Of a protein: having long molecules with little folding.^[2][7]

Word family

• fibrously
• fibrousness
• interfibrous
• nonfibrous
• subfibrous
• unfibrous

Related words

• fiber
• fibre
• fibrosis
• fibroid
• fibril

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins