hernia

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hernia, also hirnia and hernie,^[2] borrowed from Latin hernia (“a rupture”).^{[3][4][5][6][7]} The Latin noun is related to hīra (“gut, intestine”),^[4][5][8] and Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *ghere- (“gut, entrail”).^[4][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Partridge refer it to the same group as yarn,^[10][11] Barnhart to that of cord,^[5] and Dictionary.com to that of haruspex.^[8] The OED compares French hernie,^[3] which according to Weekley replaced Old French hargne.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The protrusion of part of an organ through an opening in the wall that contains it; a rupture: about 1386, in Chaucer's Parson's Tale,^[3][13] where the spelling is hirnia.^[14][5] Barnhart and the Middle English Dictionary date the text about 1390.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Middle English medical writing used the word more widely than modern English does.^[2] Besides a rupture, it could name an ulcer or morbid growth on the testicles or scrotum, with Latin phrases such as hernia aquosa, for a hydrocele, and hernia carnosa, for a fleshy growth, in the translation of Chauliac's surgery from before 1425.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline say that the spelling with e, after the Latin, came in during the 17th century.^[5][4] Johnson (1755) defined the word as any kind of rupture, named according to the part affected.^[15] The past participle herniated is recorded from 1819.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – hirnia, a rupture.^[3][5]
• before 1425 – an ulcer or growth on the testicles or scrotum.^[2]
• 17th century – the spelling hernia, after the Latin, replaces hirnia.^[5][4]
• 1819 – the participle herniated.^[4]
• 1876 – attributive use, as in hernia knife and hernia truss.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The protrusion of an organ or tissue through an opening in the wall of the cavity that normally holds it, especially of the intestine through the front wall of the abdomen; a rupture: He had surgery to repair a hernia after years of heavy lifting.^{[16][10][3][17]}

Word family

• hernial
• herniate
• herniorrhaphy
• herniotomy
• strangulated hernia
• hiatus hernia
• umbilical hernia

Related words

• yarn
• cord
• haruspex

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins