node

Pronunciation

• IPA: /nəʊd/ (UK); /noʊd/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin nōdus (“knot”),^[2][3][4] perhaps related to nectō (“to bind”),^[5] from Proto-Indo-European *ned- (“to bind, tie”) (see net).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A knot or lump in the flesh: probably before 1425, in a translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, in Barnhart;^[2] the early 15th century in Etymonline, which notes an earlier borrowing of the Latin form nodus about 1400.^[3]

Semantic evolution

A complication or entanglement is from 1572,^[6][5] and a knob on a root or branch from 1582.^[6] A hard swelling on a body part is from 1610.^[6] The sense of a point of intersection began in astronomy, of a planet's orbit crossing the ecliptic, in 1665.^[2][6][3] The point on a stem where leaves grow is from 1835,^[6] and a small mass of tissue, as a lymph node, from 1885.^[6] Nodal is from 1831, in Faraday.^[2]

Timeline

• probably before 1425 – a lump in the flesh.^[2]
• 1572 – a complication.^[6]
• 1665 – a node of an orbit.^[6][2]
• 1835 – a node of a stem.^[6]
• 1885 – a node of tissue.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A knot, knob or swelling.
2. (botany) The point on a stem where a leaf or branch grows.
3. (anatomy) A small mass of tissue, as a lymph node.
4. A point where lines or paths meet or branch, as in a network.
5. (physics) A point of zero or minimum amplitude in a standing wave.
6. (astronomy) Either of the points where an orbit crosses the ecliptic.

Word family

• internode
• nodical
• antinode
• ascending node
• AV node
• descending node
• lymph node
• node of Ranvier

Related words

• knot
• nodal
• nodule
• nodus
• net
• noose
• denouement

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press