lesion

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lesioun, also lecioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French lesion (“hurt, offence, wrong, injury, wound”),^[5][3][2][6] from Latin laesiō (“a hurting, injury, personal attack”), a noun of action from laesus, the past participle of laedō (“to strike, hurt, damage”).^{[5][3][4][6][7]} Barnhart and Dictionary.com name Middle French lesion as the immediate source,^[4][8] and the Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1200 for hurt or offence.^[9] The OED, which revised the entry in 2018, takes it partly from Anglo-Norman lesiun and partly directly from the Latin, which in post-classical use also meant wound, wrong, damage or injustice.^[10] The Latin verb is of unknown origin, with no certain cognates.^{[5][10][4][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Bodily injury; a wound or hurt: before 1425, in an English translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, which speaks of "two lesiouns oþer hurtes" from one stroke.^[2][10][4] Etymonline dates the sense "damage, injury" to the early 15th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In English the word at first covered any sort of hurt, physical or not.^[5] French already used it of a flaw in a living organism in 1314 and of a legal injury in the 13th century.^[10] In Scots and civil law, from 1561, lesion was detriment to a person's property or rights, especially as grounds for annulling a deed or contract;^[10][11] Wright's dialect dictionary records it in Scotland as a legal term for injury or wrong.^[12] The medical sense, a change in the structure of an organ or tissue caused by disease or injury, is recorded from 1640,^[10] and in the 20th century biochemists extended it to a defect in a metabolic pathway or a molecule (1931).^[10] The verb, to cause lesions, especially in experiments, is recorded from 1881.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1425 – injury, damage, hurt; a wound.^[10][2][4]
• 1561 – in Scots and civil law, damage to a person's property or rights.^[10]
• 1640 – a change in an organ or tissue caused by disease.^[10]
• 1881 – verb, to cause a lesion in, especially experimentally.^[10] Barnhart dates the verb to 1972.^[4]
• 1931 – a defect in a biochemical pathway or molecule.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An abnormal change in the structure of an organ or tissue caused by injury or disease, especially one that is clearly marked off: skin lesions.^[7][13][10]
2. An injury or wound.^[13][10]
3. (Scots law and civil law) Loss or damage to a person's property or rights, especially when it is grounds for annulling a contract.^[7][10][11]

Verb

1. To produce lesions in, especially in an experiment: The researchers lesioned part of the rats' cortex.^[7][10]

Word family

• lesioned

Related words

• lese majesty
• collide
• collision
• elide
• elision

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins