implant

Etymology

The verb is borrowed from French implanter (“to insert, engraft”),^[2][3][4][5] from im- (“in”) and planter (“to plant”);^[2][3][4] the OED and Etymonline note the older Old French emplanter (“to plant”).^[2][3] The American Heritage Dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford take it instead from Latin: Middle English implanten, from Late Latin implantō (“to engraft”),^[6][7][8] which the AHD calls Medieval Latin.^[6] Hoad allows either source.^[5] The Latin verb is formed from in- (“in”) and plantō (“to plant”), from planta (“a shoot”).^[6][7] Barnhart and Etymonline find the participle implanted much earlier than the verb, before 1425, and take it as modelled on the past participle of the Medieval Latin verb, meaning to install or invest, literally to graft in.^[9][10][3] Merriam-Webster forms the word from in- or en- and plant.^[11] The noun is formed from the verb.^[2][3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To fix or instil a principle, a desire or an opinion in someone: before 1541, in R. Barnes's Works.^[2] Etymonline dates the verb, "to plant in", of ideas and feelings, to the 1540s,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1535–45.^[12] The participle implanted is recorded probably before 1425.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense of planting ideas and feelings in the mind came first and remains, the OED says, the ordinary use.^[2][3] The physical sense, to set or embed something in something else, is recorded from 1545, and the literal sense of planting in the ground from 1610.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to infix; to insert; to place; to engraft; to settle; to set; to sow".^[13] The surgical sense, to insert tissue or an object into the body, appeared in 1886, first of teeth,^[2][3] and with it the noun implant, a thing implanted, in 1890,^[2][11][3] and the action of implanting in 1941.^[2][3] In embryology the intransitive use, to become implanted, dates from 1954.^[2] Breast implants are recorded from 1976, and implants alone in that sense by 1981.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1425 – the participle implanted.^[9][3]
• 1541 – to instil a principle or opinion.^[2]
• 1545 – to insert or embed.^[2]
• 1610 – to plant in the ground.^[2]
• 1886 – to insert surgically, first of teeth.^[2][3]
• 1890 – noun, a thing implanted.^[2][11][3]
• 1941 – noun, an act of implanting.^[2][3]
• 1954 – in embryology, to become implanted.^[2]
• 1976 – breast implant.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fix an idea, habit or feeling firmly in the mind; to instil: Her teachers implanted a love of mathematics in her.^[14][11][2]
2. To set or embed something firmly in something else.^[14][11][2]
3. In surgery, to insert tissue, a device or a substance into the body.^[14][11][2]
4. In embryology, to become implanted; to undergo implantation.^[2]

Noun

1. Something implanted in the body, such as a graft, a capsule of radioactive material or an artificial device: a dental implant.^[14][11][2]
2. The act of implanting something; an implantation.^[2][8]

Word family

• implantable
• implanter
• unimplanted
• reimplant
• implantology
• cochlear implant

Related words

• implantation
• plant
• transplant
• supplant

Usage notes

The verb is stressed on the second syllable, /ɪmˈplɑːnt/ in British and /ɪmˈplænt/ in American English, and the noun on the first.^[2][14]

References

1. ^ a b 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 u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins