Etymologically
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nasal

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈneɪ.zəl/[1]

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

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