flatulence

Etymology

The OED, Etymonline and Klein take it as borrowed from French flatulence, from flatulent,^[2][3][4] from New Latin flātulentus, from Latin flātus (“a blowing, breaking wind”),^[5][3][2] from flō (“to blow”),^[3][5][2] from Proto-Indo-European *bhle- (“to blow”).^[3][6] Barnhart instead forms it from flatulent, on the model of eminent and eminence,^[7] and Merriam-Webster and the Shorter Oxford form it from flatulency, after pairs such as abstinency and abstinence.^[8][5] The OED derives flatulency from flatulence, although it records flatulency much earlier, from 1599.^[2] Barnhart considers the French flatulent an irregular formation, probably patterned on virulent and succulent.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the OED and Barnhart, the first record is 1711, in a translation of S. Werenfels, and it is figurative: an inflated or puffed-up condition, vanity, pomposity.^[2][7][3] Merriam-Webster, whose entry also covers flatulency, gives 1660 as the first known use.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The older form is flatulency, which the OED records in 1599 for the tendency to cause wind, and in 1661 for gas in the digestive tract.^[2] On the OED's evidence, flatulence began as a figurative word for puffed-up vanity.^[2][7] A general sense, being charged with gas, is quoted from Sheridan's School for Scandal (before 1816),^[2][5] and the medical sense, gas in the stomach or intestines, from Copland's Dictionary of Practical Medicine (1858).^[2][5] Wiktionary gives only this bodily sense and the release of the gas.^[1]

Timeline

• 1711 – figurative, pomposity or pretentiousness, in a translation of Werenfels.^[2][7]
• before 1816 – the condition of being charged with gas, in Sheridan.^[2]
• 1858 – gas in the stomach or other parts of the alimentary canal, in Copland.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An accumulation of gas in the stomach or intestines.^[2][5][8]
2. The release of such gas; flatus.^[1]
3. The tendency of a food to produce such gas.^[2][5]
4. (figurative) Puffed-up vanity or pretentiousness; pomposity.^[2][5]

Related words

• afflatus
• flatulent
• flatulency
• flatus
• blow

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster