groin

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English grinde (“groin”), also grynde,^[2][3][4] perhaps inherited from Old English grynde (“abyss”),^{[5][6][7][2][8]} which Etymonline and Ayto take to have meant also "depression, hollow".^[9][10] The Old English word is related to grund (“bottom”), the source of ground,^[4][11][12] and continues a derivative of Proto-Germanic *grunduz;^[9][10] Holthausen compares Old Saxon afgrundi and Old High German abgrunti, abyss.^[13] The form grine appears in 1530 but did not finally replace the older form until the late 16th century, when it became groin,^[3][9] probably under the influence of loin,^[4][5][11] or, as the OED has it, through association with the old word groin, snout, Old French groign.^[3][9] The OED itself calls the origin unknown, and excludes a connection with grain because of the early form.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fold between the abdomen and the thigh: before 1400, in the English translation of Lanfranc's surgery, which tells the reader to anoint the grynde (Latin inguina) with hot oil.^[2][10][3] Barnhart and Etymonline date the form groin to 1592, in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, and to the 1590s.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Ayto, following Skeat, explains the sense as a figurative transfer of "depression in the ground" to the depression between the abdomen and the thighs.^[10] The older sense is still visible in the MED's place names, where the word seems to mean a hollow,^[2] in the place name Gryndewelle (1281), and in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), where groin is a deep trench or excavation.^[4][3] In 1631, in Jonson, the groin was the seat of lust.^[3] The architectural sense, the edge where two vaults intersect, and the rib covering it, is recorded from 1725,^[3][9][8] and the verb, to build with groins, from the early 19th century.^[3][6][14] Weekley notes that the architectural sense is later than the anatomical one.^[12] In 20th-century criminal slang a groin was a ring, especially one set with a stone;^[3][15] the OED links this to the body part, but Green doubts the link.^[15] Collins records the euphemistic use for the genitals.^[16][6] The English Dialect Dictionary finds the word in general dialect use in Scotland, Ireland and the northern counties, with forms such as grean and greun.^[17]

Timeline

• before 1400 – grynde, the fold between the abdomen and the thigh.^[3][2]
• 1530 – the form grine.^[3][9]
• 1587 – a deep trench or excavation (obsolete).^[3][4]
• 1592 – the form groin, in Shakespeare.^[4]
• 1631 – figuratively, the seat of lust (obsolete).^[3]
• 1725 – architecture, the edge formed where two vaults intersect.^[3][9]
• 1815 – the verb, to build with groins.^[3] Merriam-Webster dates it to about 1816.^[14]
• 1931 – slang, a ring.^[3] Green's first quotation is from 1914.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fold or depression on either side of the body where the thigh joins the abdomen, or the region around it: He pulled a muscle in his groin.^[16][14][3]
2. (euphemistic) The genitals, especially the testicles.^[16][6]
3. (architecture) The curved edge formed where two vaults intersect; also the rib of stone or wood covering it.^[16][14][3]
4. (chiefly US) A variant spelling of groyne.^[16][14]
5. (slang) A ring, especially one set with a gem.^[3][15]

Verb

1. (architecture) To build or provide with groins: a groined ceiling.^[16][14][3]

Related words

• ground
• groyne
• loin
• grunt

Usage notes

The groyne built out into the sea to check erosion (from 1582) is spelled groin in American English.^[16][3] Etymonline, Hoad, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Ayto derive it from the obsolete groin, a pig's snout, from Old French groin and ultimately Latin grunniō (“to grunt”), which has a separate source;^{[9][8][7][10]} the OED calls its origin obscure.^[3] The snout word, recorded from about 1330, survives only in dialect.^[3][6][14]

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 f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
14. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)