obstructive

Etymology

It is either borrowed from Middle French obstructif (“causing obstruction”), recorded in French in a medical sense from 1539, or else from post-classical Latin obstructīvus (“that blocks a passage; causing obstruction”), according to the OED, which revised the entry in 2004.^[2] Etymonline, the Shorter Oxford and Webster's Third instead form it from obstruct, or its Latin stem, and -ive.^[3][4][5][6] Both forms go back to the past participial stem of Latin obstruō (“to build up, block, hinder”),^[2][3] from ob- (“in front of, against”) and struō (“to pile, build”),^[3][7][8] from Proto-Indo-European *streu-, an extended form of *stere- (“to spread”).^[3] Johnson derived it from French obstructif and the verb obstruct.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In medicine, causing a blockage of a passage of the body: 1583, in Philip Barrough's Methode of Phisicke.^[2] The Shorter Oxford dates the word to the early 17th century, and Etymonline to the 1610s.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The general sense, causing obstruction or tending to hinder, follows in 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "hindering; causing impediment".^[9] Etymonline gives it the further shade of being intended to delay or annoy.^[3] The noun meant a hindrance from 1642 to 1860, and since 1835 a person who obstructs progress, a use now rare.^[2][10] In the dialect of the west of England the adjective meant disobliging.^[11]

Timeline

• 1583 – in medicine, causing obstruction of a body passage.^[2][10]
• 1611 – causing obstruction; tending to hinder.^[2][10]
• 1642 – noun, a hindrance (obsolete by 1860).^[2][10]
• 1835 – noun, a person who obstructs, especially one who delays progress.^[2][10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Tending to obstruct or put obstacles in the way; deliberately unhelpful: The clerk was obstructive and lost our forms twice.^[6][2][4][3]
2. (medicine) Causing, caused by or relating to the obstruction of a passage of the body.^[2][6][4]

Noun

1. A person or thing that obstructs; now rare.^[6][2]

Word family

• nonobstructive
• unobstructive

Related words

• obstruct
• obstruction
• structure
• construct
• destroy

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ 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)