internal

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɪnˈtɜː.nəl/, US /ɪnˈtɝː.nəl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English internalle,^[2][3] borrowed from Medieval Latin internālis,^[4][2][5] or Middle French internel,^[2] from Latin internus (“within, inward; domestic”),^[4][2][6] expanded from pre-Latin *interos, from Proto-Indo-European *en-ter- (“within, between”),^[4] a comparative form of the root *en “in”,^[4] the source also of Sanskrit antar “within” and German unter.^[4] It is related to inter-, interior and intern.^[4][2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a sea, “extending toward the interior” of a continent: before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[2][4] the early 15th century in Etymonline.^[4]

Semantic evolution

“Of the mind or soul, inward” is from 1509,^[2][7] and “situated within” from the 1590s,^[4] first in Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590).^[2][7] “Pertaining to the inner nature of a thing” is from 1607.^[7] Of the domestic affairs of a country, as in internal revenue, it is from 1795.^[4][7] Of a medicine taken internally it is from 1799,^[7] and of a student who studied at a university's colleges, as against an external one, from 1898.^[7] Internal combustion engines followed in the late 19th century,^[8][3] and the internal clock is from 1960.^[7] Internalize is American, from 1884.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – extending inland.^[2]
• 1509 – of the mind.^[2][7]
• 1590 – situated within.^[2][7]
• 1795 – of domestic affairs.^[4][7]
• 1884 – internalize.^[2]
• 1960 – internal clock.^[7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Situated or existing within; inner.
2. Belonging to the essential nature of something; intrinsic.
3. Within the body, or acting on it from within: internal bleeding.
4. Of the mind or spirit.
5. Of the domestic affairs of a nation: internal trade.
6. Within an organization: an internal inquiry.

Word family

• internality
• internally
• internalize
• internalise
• internal iliac artery
• internal combustion engine
• internal energy
• internal medicine

Related words

• inter-
• interior
• intern
• external
• entrails

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin