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metabolic

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Etymology and origin of the English word metabolic

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1743 Henry Fielding, Miscellanies
Borrowed from
Ancient Greek μεταβολικός
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek μεταβολή

Pronunciation

  • UK: /mɛtəˈbɒlɪk/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μεταβολικός (metabolikós, “changeable”),[2][3][4][5] a Hellenistic Greek adjective formed from μεταβολή (metabolḗ, “change”) with -ικός (-ikós).[2][4] The biological sense follows German metabolisch, used by Theodor Schwann in 1839,[2][6][5][7] and the zoological one the insect group Metabola.[2] The Greek noun comes from μεταβάλλω (metabállō, “to change, alter”),[8][3][6] formed from μετά (metá) and a verb meaning to throw.[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relating to or involving change: 1743, in Henry Fielding's Miscellanies, a rare sense now obsolete.[2][9] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1735–45.[4]

Semantic evolution

The modern word is in effect a fresh borrowing: in 1841 the Philosophical Transactions used it for what relates to metabolism, after Schwann's German;[2][7] Etymonline gives 1845 for this biological sense.[6] The noun metabolism itself is later, from 1878 in the physiological sense.[6] From 1844 to 1885 zoologists also called an insect metabolic when it went through metamorphosis,[2] and since 1881 the word has described protists that change shape.[2] Medicine has used it since 1902 for disorders caused by faulty metabolism.[2]

Timeline

  • 1743 – relating to change (obsolete).[2]
  • 1841 – relating to metabolism.[2][7]
  • 1844 – of an insect, undergoing metamorphosis (obsolete by 1885).[2]
  • 1881 – of a protist, changing shape.[2]
  • 1902 – of a disease, caused by abnormal metabolism.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of, relating to or produced by metabolism: A cold room lowers the body's metabolic rate.[7][2][9]
  2. (medicine) Of a disease or disorder, resulting from abnormal metabolism.[2]
  3. (obsolete) Relating to or involving change.[2][9]

Word family

  • metabolically
  • ametabolic
  • hypermetabolic
  • basal metabolic rate

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Metabolic.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/metabolic. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·