intestinal

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin intestīnālis,^[2][3] from intestīnum (“gut, intestine”),^[2][3] the noun use of the neuter of intestīnus (“inward, internal”),^[3][4] from intus (“within”),^[3][4] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *entos, a suffixed form of *en (“in”).^[3] The OED compares French intestinal, used by Paré in the 16th century,^[2] and Merriam-Webster takes the word as probably borrowed from intestin with the suffix -al,^[5][6] as Johnson had derived it from French.^[7] The Shorter Oxford treats it as formed from intestine and -al.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to the intestines, or found in or affecting them: the OED's first record is from 1599, in a translation of Gaebelkhover's Boock of Physicke.^[2][9] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford and Merriam-Webster also place it in the 15th century,^[8][5] while Dictionary.com gives 1590–1600.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "belonging to the guts", quoting Arbuthnot on the intestinal tube.^[7] In zoology it was also used of animals that have an intestine, as opposed to those without one.^[2] A rare literary use, recorded before 1861 in Elizabeth Barrett Browning, takes it in the sense of the adjective intestine, internal or civil.^[2][9] Merriam-Webster records further figurative uses, of something internal or of something intricately winding like a gut.^[5] The jocular intestinal fortitude, courage or "guts", dates from about 1937.^[5]

Timeline

• 1599 – of or relating to the intestines.^[2][9] Etymonline, the Shorter Oxford and Merriam-Webster date the word to the 15th century.^[3][8][5]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as "belonging to the guts".^[7]
• before 1861 – internal, civil (rare).^[2][9]
• c. 1937 – intestinal fortitude, courage.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or affecting the intestines: intestinal bacteria.^{[2][5][11][12]}
2. Living or taking place in the intestine: an intestinal parasite.^[5][2]
3. intestinal fortitude: courage and endurance, guts.^[5]

Word family

• intestinally
• gastrointestinal
• postintestinal
• subintestinal
• intestinal fortitude

Related words

• intestine

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
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 d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins