intestine

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English intestine,^[2] borrowed from Old French intestin or directly borrowed from Latin intestīnum (“a gut”),^[3][2][4][5] the noun use of the neuter of the adjective intestīnus (“inward, internal”).^[3][6][7][8] The plural intestīna meant the intestines or bowels.^[3][4] The adjective intestine is from intestīnus, perhaps through Middle French intestin;^[8][6][2] the OED notes that the French adjective is recorded from the 14th century.^[6] Intestīnus is formed from intus (“within, on the inside”),^{[3][9][10][11]} and Barnhart thinks it was altered under the influence of clandestīnus (“hidden”).^[12][5] Etymonline traces intus to Proto-Indo-European *entos, a suffixed form of the root *en (“in”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A section of the intestines, used in the plural: probably before 1425, in the English translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, which names the large and small intestines gros and sotil intestine.^[2][5] The adjective, internal to a group of people, is first found in 1439, in the Proceedings of the Privy Council, of intestine division and werres.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that Middle English told the large and small intestines apart as gross and subtle.^[3] The OED's records of the noun start only in the 16th century: a figurative "inmost part" in Lord Berners (before 1533), the plural for the bowels in 1598 and the singular in 1651.^[6] Collins and Dictionary.com likewise date the noun to the 16th century.^[13][14] The adjective took up the French sense "internal to a country, domestic, civil", used mostly of wars, feuds and troubles,^[6][3] and Merriam-Webster notes that it is usually said of something evil or troublesome.^[8] Other uses, "inborn, innate" (1583–1678) and "seated in the bowels, intestinal" (1609–1726), died out,^[6][7] while "internal" in a general sense survived in science for motion among the molecules of a body (1664).^[6] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "internal; inward" and "domestick, not foreign", quoting Pope's Intestine war no more our passions wage and Shakespeare's mortal and intestine jars.^[15] Etymonline treats the adjective as current from the 16th to the 19th century.^[3]

Timeline

• probably before 1425 – noun, a section of the intestines, in the plural.^[2][5]
• 1439 – adjective, internal to a group of people.^[2]
• before 1533 – noun, figuratively, the inmost part (now obsolete).^[6]
• 1547 – adjective, internal to a country; civil, domestic.^[6]
• 1583 – adjective, inward, innate (obsolete by 1678).^[6]
• 1598 – the intestines, in the plural.^[6]
• 1609 – adjective, seated in the bowels (obsolete by 1726).^[6]
• 1651 – the intestine, in the singular.^[6]
• 1664 – adjective, internal to any thing or place; of motion among the molecules of a body.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The lower part of the alimentary canal, from the stomach to the anus, usually in the plural; divided into the small intestine and the large intestine: The surgeon removed a short length of the patient's intestine.^[13][8][7]

Adjective

1. Internal to a country or community; civil or domestic, usually of strife: years of intestine feuds.^[8][6][7]
2. (rare) Internal; interior.^[7][6]
3. (obsolete, 1583–1678) Inward, innate.^[6][7]
4. (obsolete, 1609–1726) Within the body; intestinal.^[6][7][15]

Word family

• gastrointestinal
• intestinal
• large intestine
• small intestine

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.