nasal

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English nasale,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Medieval Latin nāsālis (“of the nose”),^{[5][2][4][6][7]} recorded in 1363 in Guy de Chauliac,^[5] formed from Latin nāsus (“nose”) with the suffix -ālis,^[5][8] from Proto-Indo-European *nas- (“nose”),^[2][4] the root of nose.^[4][9] The 17th-century adjective is probably also borrowed from French nasal,^{[3][10][11][12][9]} which Barnhart takes as the main source of the modern word, with the Middle English medical term surviving beside it.^[3] The noun meaning a nosepiece on a helmet is borrowed from Old French nasal, a variant of nasel, from nāsāle, the neuter of the adjective used as a noun.^{[5][10][11][13]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to the nose: before 1425, in an English translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie,^[5][3] where the noun also meant a medicine applied to the nose.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed a medical term until the 17th century,^[3] when it was taken up by grammarians: in 1666 John Eliot's Indian Grammar used it of a speech sound made with air passing through the nose,^[5] and in 1669 William Holder's Elements of Speech used both the adjective of nasal-sounding speech and the noun for a nasal sound.^[5][3] Barnhart thinks this sense grew out of Blount's use of the adjective in his Glossographia (1656).^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "belonging to the nose", quoting Holder on the nasals.^[14] The OED notes that the sense of nasal-sounding speech is often disparaging.^[5] From 1803 the word was even applied to snoring.^[5] The helmet's nosepiece was a separate borrowing, nasel, about 1300,^[2][3] and nasal for it is recorded from 1480, in Caxton.^[5] In anatomy and zoology a nasal has been a nasal bone since 1854.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – nasel, the nosepiece of a helmet.^[2][3]
• before 1425 – of the nose; noun, a medicine for the nose (obsolete by 1688).^[5]
• 1480 – nasal, a nosepiece on a helmet.^[5]
• 1656 – in Blount's Glossographia.^[3]
• 1666 – of a speech sound, pronounced through the nose.^[5]
• 1669 – of speech, marked by nasal sounds; noun, a nasal sound.^[5][3]
• 1803 – of snoring.^[5]
• 1832 – received through the nose.^[5]
• 1854 – noun, a nasal bone.^[5]
• 1875 – applied to or used on the nose, in medicine.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, in or relating to the nose: a nasal spray.^{[4][15][13][5]}
2. (phonetics) Pronounced with the soft palate lowered, so that air passes out through the nose, like the consonants m, n and ng.^{[4][15][13][5]}
3. Of a voice or speech: having a sound like that made through the nose: She answered in a flat, nasal voice.^[4][5]

Noun

1. (phonetics) A nasal consonant or vowel.^{[4][15][13][5]}
2. A nosepiece on a helmet.^[15][13][5]
3. A bone or other part of the nose, such as a nasal bone.^[13][5]

Word family

• nasality
• nasally

Related words

• nose
• nostril
• nares
• nasturtium

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon 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. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins