insertion

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin insertiō (“a putting in, grafting”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a noun of action from insertus, the past participle of īnserō (“to put in, graft, implant”),^[3][7][5] which is formed from in- (“in”) and serō (“to join, put in a row”),^[8][7][3] from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to line up”).^[7][8] Etymonline allows that it came through Middle French insertion (16th century);^[7] the OED only compares the French word, which Paré used in the 16th century in the anatomical sense.^[2] It is the noun of insert.^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The attachment of a muscle or organ, in anatomy: 1578, in John Banister's Historie of Man.^[2] Merriam-Webster gives 1539 as its first known use,^[5] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1570–80,^[4] and the Shorter Oxford dates the sense "something inserted" to the mid 16th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The general sense, the action of putting something in, appears in Florio's Italian dictionary in 1598,^[2] and Etymonline dates it to the 1590s.^[7] The sense of a thing inserted, such as a word or passage added to a text, follows in 1624^[2] (Etymonline: the 1620s).^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as the act of placing anything in or among other matter, with a quotation about the insertion of records in a historian's narration.^[9] The Shorter Oxford adds the use for each appearance of an advertisement in a newspaper.^[6] In needlework, from about 1840, an insertion was a strip of lace or embroidery made to be sewn into plain fabric.^[2][10] The 20th century brought a sense in genetics, the addition of a piece of DNA to a chromosome (1935),^[2] and one in space flight, the placing of a craft in orbit (1962, John Glenn).^[2]

Timeline

• 1578 – anatomy, the attachment of a muscle.^[2]
• 1598 – the action of inserting.^[2]
• 1624 – something inserted, as in a text.^[2]
• c. 1840 – needlework, lace or embroidery sewn into plain material.^[2]
• 1935 – genetics, the addition of DNA to a chromosome.^[2]
• 1962 – astronautics, placing a craft in orbit.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of putting something in: the insertion of a new battery.^[10][5][2]
2. Something inserted, especially a word or passage added to a text, or an advertisement in a newspaper.^[10][2][6]
3. A strip of lace or embroidery sewn between two pieces of material.^[10][2]
4. (anatomy) The point at which a muscle is attached to the part it moves, as opposed to its origin.^[10][5][2]
5. (botany) The place or manner in which one part is attached to another.^[10][2]
6. (genetics) The addition of one or more pieces of DNA to a chromosome or sequence.^[2]
7. (astronautics) The placing of a spacecraft in orbit.^[2]

Word family

• insertional
• noninsertion
• preinsertion
• reinsertion

Related words

• insert
• series
• serial

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 u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins