jugular

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin jugulāris,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} which the Oxford English Dictionary calls medieval or modern Latin and Etymonline and Klein modern Latin,^[8][9][10] perhaps partly through Middle French jugulaire.^[11] It is from iugulum (“collarbone, throat, neck”),^{[8][9][2][11]} a diminutive of iugum (“yoke”),^{[9][2][11][4][12]} from Proto-Indo-European *yeug- (“to join”).^[9][2] It is thus related to yoke and, through Latin iungō (“to join”), to join.^[11][3][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the neck or throat, especially of the great veins of the neck: 1598, in A. M.'s translation of Guillemeau's Frenche Chirurgerye.^[8][9] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart give 1597.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

The adjective was first a term of anatomy, used above all of the great veins of the neck.^[8][9] From 1615, in H. Crooke's Mikrokosmographia, the adjective alone served as a noun for such a vein.^[8][9][11] Johnson (1755) defined it as "belonging to the throat", quoting a wound "into the internal jugular" from Wiseman's Surgery.^[13] Ichthyology took it up in 1769, in Pennant's British Zoology, for fishes whose ventral fins sit in front of the pectoral fins, on the throat.^[8] The figurative phrase go for the jugular, to attack an adversary's most vulnerable point, is first recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary in 1939, in Barron's;^[8] Tréguer, who calls it American in origin, finds it in a Kansas newspaper in 1879, of politicians attacking a senatorial candidate.^[14] The image is of a fatal attack on the throat, where the jugular vein runs.^[14]

Timeline

• 1598 – of the neck or throat, especially of its great veins.^[8] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart give 1597.^[3][11]
• 1615 – noun, the jugular vein.^[8][3][11]
• 1769 – of a fish with its ventral fins on the throat.^[8]
• 1835 – noun, a jugular fish.^[8]
• 1879 – go for the jugular, to attack someone's weakest point.^[14] The Oxford English Dictionary's first record is from 1939.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to, or in the throat or neck.^[3][7][8]
2. Of or relating to the jugular vein: a weak jugular pulse.^[3]
3. (ichthyology) Of a fish: having the ventral or pelvic fins on the throat, in front of the pectoral fins; of a fin, placed there.^[3][7][8]

Noun

1. A jugular vein.^[3][7][8]
2. The most vital or vulnerable point of an opponent, especially in go for the jugular, to attack fiercely and decisively.^{[3][7][8][15]}
3. (ichthyology) A jugular fish.^[3][8]

Word family

• jugular vein

Related words

• yoke
• join
• jugulate
• conjugal
• subjugate
• juggler

Usage notes

Besides /ˈdʒʌɡjʊlə/, a pronunciation with /uː/ in the first syllable is also recorded.^[6][3] Dictionary.com lists jugular among words that can be confused with juggler.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Tréguer, Pascal, Word Histories, wordhistories.net, p. "‘to go for the jugular’: meaning and origin", 7 October 2022
15. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House