fleshy

Etymology

It is formed from English flesh + -y,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} first recorded as Middle English fleshi.^[7][8] The OED compares German fleischig.^[2] Flesh is from Old English flǣsc.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Well covered with flesh, plump: about 1369, in Chaucer's Book of the Duchess,^[2][8] late 14th century in Etymonline.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Around 1400 the word was also used of the body's soft parts, consisting of flesh without bone, as in medical texts.^[2][7] Like the noun, it could stand for the flesh as opposed to the spirit (before 1400 to 1535) and for the carnal (1604–68), but in these senses it gave way to fleshly.^[2][9] Tyndale's Bible (1526) used it of the heart, implying softness and tenderness.^[2][3] From 1577 it described pulpy fruit and leaves.^[2][10] Johnson (1755) gave first "plump; full of flesh; fat; musculous", quoting Bacon.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1369 – well covered with flesh, plump.^[2]
• c. 1400 – consisting of flesh, without bone.^[2]
• before 1400 – of the flesh as opposed to the spirit (obsolete by 1535).^[2]
• 1526 – soft and tender, of the heart.^[2]
• 1555 – resembling flesh.^[2]
• 1577 – of fruit or leaves, pulpy.^[2]
• 1630 – bodily, corporeal.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a lot of flesh; plump or fat: a fleshy face.^[10][5][2]
2. Consisting of or like flesh: the fleshy part of the arm.^[10][5][2]
3. (botany) Of fruit or leaves: thick and pulpy.^[10][2]

Word family

• fleshiness
• fleshily

Related words

• fleshly

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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b 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)
8. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
9. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.