pituitary

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pītuītārius (“mucous, relating to phlegm”),^[2][3][4][5] from pītuīta (“phlegm, mucus, slime”),^[3][4][6][7] with the suffix of -ary.^[2][6] The OED analyses it as formed in English from the Latin noun and -ary, and compares French pituitaire, recorded in 1575 in the phrase glande pituitaire, and the Latin plant name pītuītāria.^[8] Collins gives the source as Late Latin.^[9] The gland was named so because it was believed to channel mucus to the nose.^[10][4][3] Etymonline calls the Latin noun a word of unknown etymology;^[4] Barnhart and Klein connect it with a root meaning sap or juice, also seen in pīnus (“pine”),^[2][7] and the American Heritage Dictionary refers it to the root Proto-Indo-European *peiə- (“to be fat, swell”).^[3] The same Latin word, altered in Vulgar Latin, is the ultimate source of pip, the disease of poultry.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the nature of phlegm or mucus, or producing it; applied especially to the gland at the base of the brain, then thought to secrete nasal mucus: 1615, in H. Crooke's Mikrokosmographia, a description of the body.^[8][11] Etymonline dates the word to the 1610s and Dictionary.com to 1605–15.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

The name rested on an old anatomical belief: the small gland under the brain was taken to send phlegm down to the nose.^[10][4][3] The phrase pituitary gland is recorded in English from 1707, after French glande pituitaire; the anatomical sense of the adjective, of or produced by that gland, follows in 1778.^[8] As physiology learned that the gland regulates growth and other bodily functions, the old sense "mucous" died out; the OED's last record of it is from 1884.^[8][2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged keeps it as archaic,^[11] and Collins likewise.^[9] The adjective came to be used alone as a noun for the gland, a use the OED and Etymonline date to 1899,^[8][4][10] while Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1845 for the noun.^[11] Merriam-Webster also records the noun for a powdered extract of the gland of cattle, once used in medicine.^[11][9]

Timeline

• 1615 – mucous, secreting phlegm, said of the gland thought to produce nasal mucus (obsolete by 1884).^[8][11][2]
• 1707 – pituitary gland.^[8]
• 1778 – of, relating to, or produced by the pituitary gland.^[8]
• 1899 – noun, the pituitary gland.^[8][4][10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the noun to 1845.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The pituitary gland, the small endocrine gland at the base of the brain that controls growth and many other functions.^[9][11][8]
2. An extract made from the dried gland of cattle, formerly used in medicine.^[9][11]

Adjective

1. Of, relating to, or produced by the pituitary gland: a pituitary tumour.^[9][11][8]
2. Of a type of physique marked by disorders such as acromegaly that result from a disturbed pituitary gland.^[11]
3. (archaic) Of or relating to phlegm or mucus; mucous (obsolete in the OED, 1615–1884).^[9][11][8]

Word family

• pituicyte
• hypopituitarism
• hyperpituitarism
• anterior pituitary
• pituitary body
• pituitary gland

Related words

• pip

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House