Etymologically
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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
  • 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