larynx

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin larynx,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek λάρυγξ (lárunx, “upper windpipe, throat”).^{[2][3][6][7][4]} Barnhart and Etymonline bring it into English through French larynx.^[8][6] The further origin of the Greek word is unsettled.^[7][6] Barnhart, Klein and Etymonline think it probably an alteration of λαιμός (laimós, “throat, gullet”) under the influence of φάρυγξ (phárunx, “throat”).^[8][7][6] Klein also allows an imitative base meaning "to sip", with Middle High German slurken (“to sip”) and perhaps Latin lurcō (“to devour”), and Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise compares those words.^[7][9] Beekes suspects a Pre-Greek origin.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cavity in the throat, with walls of cartilage, that holds the vocal cords: 1578, in Banister's Historie of Man.^{[3][8][9][10]}

Semantic evolution

The Greek word meant the throat or the upper part of the windpipe,^[6][7][11] and in English it has stayed an anatomical term for one organ.^[3][4] Johnson (1755) still described it by position, as the upper part of the trachea, below the root of the tongue, with Derham's count of its muscles and cartilages.^[12] Medical derivatives were built on the Greek stem: laryngeal is recorded from 1795,^[3] and laryngitis from 1815 in the OED and 1818 in Etymonline.^[3][6]

Timeline

• 1578 – the voice organ in the throat, in Banister.^[3][8]
• 1795 – the derivative laryngeal.^[3]
• 1815 – the derivative laryngitis.^[3] Etymonline dates it to 1818.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The hollow organ of cartilage and muscle at the upper end of the trachea, which holds the vocal cords in humans and most mammals.^[13][9][4]

Word family

• laryngo-
• laryng-
• laryngeal
• laryngitis

Related words

• pharynx

Usage notes

The plural is larynges or larynxes.^[13][4][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged labels as substandard a pronunciation close to larnix.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins