Etymologically
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physiology

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 02:27. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˌfɪziˈɒləd͡ʒi/[1]
  • US: /ˌfɪziˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/[1]

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French physiologie (“natural science”),[2][3][4] recorded in French from 1547,[2] and partly directly borrowed from Latin physiologia (“natural philosophy, natural science”),[2][3][5][6] from Ancient Greek φυσιολογία (phusiología, “inquiry into nature, natural science”), a word used by Aristotle,[2][7][3] from φυσιολόγος (phusiológos, “one who inquires into nature”),[2][7] from φύσις (phúsis, “nature”) and -λόγος (-lógos, “one who speaks or deals with a topic”).[7] The Oxford Dictionary of English takes it from Latin, perhaps via French.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Natural philosophy, natural science, or a particular system of it: 1564, in Bauldwin's Moral Philosophy.[2][9][5] Etymonline dates it to the 1560s.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word was narrowed from natural science in general to the science of the functions of living organisms in 1615, in Helkiah Crooke's Mikrokosmographia, a description of the human body;[2][5] Etymonline dates the sense to the 1610s.[3] Barnhart treats it as a new borrowing from New Latin,[5] and the OED notes that post-classical Latin had that sense by 1554 and French by 1611, in Cotgrave.[2] Johnson (1755) still defined it as "the doctrine of the constitution of the works of nature",[10] and the old sense lasted until 1881 in the OED's records,[2] to the late 18th century in the Shorter Oxford's.[4] Fowler (1926), quoted by Etymonline, noted that physics and physiology once shared the wide meaning of natural science, and were then narrowed: physics to matter and energy in inorganic nature, physiology to the functions of living beings.[3] Since 1615 the word has also named the functional processes of an organism or of one of its parts.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 1564 – natural philosophy, natural science (obsolete by 1881).[2][9]
  • 1615 – the science of the functions of living organisms.[2][5]
  • 1755 – Johnson still gives only the old sense.[10]
  • 1881 – last record of the old sense.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The branch of biology that studies how living organisms and their organs, tissues and cells work.[6][9][2]
  2. The processes and functions of an organism or of one of its parts: the physiology of the liver.[6][2]
  3. (obsolete) Natural science; natural philosophy (1564–1881).[2][9][4]

Word family

  • physiologist

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 m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ 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.