gelatin

Etymology

It is borrowed from French gélatine,^[2][3][4][5] a specific use by A.-F. de Fourcroy in 1787 of the Middle French word for a jelly made from boiled animal tissue, recorded from 1567 or earlier.^[2] The French word is from Italian gelatina,^[2][3][6][5] formed from gelata (“jelly”) and the suffix -ina,^[2] and the Italian noun is the feminine past participle of gelare (“to freeze”),^[3] from Latin gelō (“to freeze, congeal”),^[3][5][7] from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold; to freeze”).^[7][3] Dictionary.com instead takes the French word from Medieval Latin gelātina, built on gelātus (“frozen, thickened”).^[8] English jelly comes from the same Latin verb through Old French,^[9][5] and the OED compares galantine.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A water-soluble protein substance got by boiling animal tissue: 1795, in a translation of Fourcroy's work on chemistry.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1800 and Dictionary.com to 1790–1800,^[10][8] the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the early 19th century.^[4][6] Etymonline has the spelling gelatine from 1713 and gelatin from 1800.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Italian word first named a sauce served with fish or poultry, made from the jellied juices of meat or fish, in the second half of the 13th century, and later also a quince jelly.^[2] In French it could also mean a fish broth, in Cotgrave (1611), and later, by 1786, any substance with the consistency of jelly.^[2] English took over the narrower chemical sense that Fourcroy had fixed,^[2] then widened it in 1803 to similar substances from plants.^[2] From 1851, in Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, to 1913, a gelatin could also be a card of thin stiffened gelatin, often clear and coloured.^[2] Explosive gelatins made from nitroglycerine and nitrocellulose are recorded from 1876 in English, a little before the same sense in French (1879 or earlier) and Italian (1889).^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary also records a jelly dessert made with it and a thin coloured sheet used in stage lighting.^[3]

Timeline

• 1713 – the spelling gelatine.^[7] Etymonline dates gelatin to 1800.^[7]
• 1795 – a protein substance obtained by boiling animal tissue.^[2]
• 1803 – similar substances obtained from plants.^[2]
• 1851 – a card of thin stiffened gelatin (obsolete by 1913).^[2]
• 1876 – an explosive of nitrocellulose dissolved in nitroglycerine.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A nearly colourless, tasteless, water-soluble protein made from collagen by boiling animal skin and bones, used in food, photography and glue: Stir the gelatin into warm water before adding the fruit.^[11][3][2]
2. Any of various similar substances, including those obtained from plants.^[3][2]
3. A jelly made with this substance, served as a dessert or a base for salads.^[3]
4. A thin coloured sheet of it, used in theatrical lighting.^[3]
5. A high explosive, also called blasting gelatin, chiefly a gel of nitroglycerine with cellulose nitrate.^[11][6][2]

Word family

• gel
• gelatinate
• gelatinization
• gelatinize
• gelatinoid
• gelatinous
• nitrogelatin
• photogelatin

Related words

• jelly
• gelid
• congeal
• galantine
• cold

Usage notes

The spelling gelatine prevailed through most of the 19th century and was then gradually replaced by gelatin, although it stayed common in British, Australian and New Zealand English well into the 20th century and survives in some cooking contexts.^[2] Fowler, quoted by Etymonline, held that the form without the final -e was "in scientific (or pseudo-scientific) use only".^[7] Merriam-Webster calls gelatine the less common spelling.^[10]

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 r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press