receptacle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English receptacle,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman receptacle^[3][4] and directly borrowed from Latin receptāculum (“place for storing things, container; shelter, refuge”),^[3][2][5][6] and the dictionaries also name Old French receptacle.^[7][8][9] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the 13th century as a part of the body that contains a humour.^[4][3] The Latin noun is formed from receptō (“to receive back”) and the suffix -culum.^[3][10][11] That verb is a frequentative of recipiō (“to receive, regain”),^[7][6][12] a compound of re- (“back, again”) and capiō (“to take”),^[13] which also gave capture.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

An organ or space in the body that holds a fluid: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[3] Barnhart gives 1392 for the word,^[5] and Etymonline the late 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English as a technical term of anatomy, as the Anglo-Norman word already was.^[3][4] The general sense of a vessel or place that holds things is recorded around 1425 in Lydgate's Troy Book, in which the word is also used figuratively of qualities and feelings, and of a haven that shelters people or ships.^[3][2] That "shelter" sense lasted until 1882, and the phrase to give receptacle meant, from 1620 to 1661, to admit or offer sanctuary.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the word as a vessel or place into which anything is received, quoting Hooker on heaven as a receptacle for souls.^[14] Botany took it up in the 18th and 19th centuries, for the part of the stalk that bears a flower (1753) and the structures that carry the reproductive organs of ferns and other lower plants (1824).^[3] It has been used for an electrical socket since 1887, chiefly in the United States.^[3] In slang it has meant the vagina, as in a text of 1904.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1398 – an organ or space holding a fluid.^[3]
• c. 1425 – a container or repository; also a place of shelter, and figuratively of qualities and feelings.^[3][2]
• 1620 – to give receptacle, to admit or give sanctuary (obsolete by 1661).^[3]
• 1753 – in botany, the part of the stalk to which the parts of a flower attach.^[3]
• 1824 – in botany and mycology, a structure carrying reproductive organs.^[3]
• 1887 – an electrical socket.^[3]
• 1904 – in slang, the vagina.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. Something that receives and holds things; a container or repository: a metal receptacle for used batteries.^[16][10][3]
2. (botany) The enlarged tip of a flower stalk, which bears the parts of the flower or the florets of a composite flower.^[16][10][3]
3. (botany) In lower plants, a structure that bears the reproductive organs or spores.^[16][3]
4. An organ or space in the body or a plant that holds a fluid or secretion.^[10][3]
5. Chiefly in the United States, an electrical socket.^[3]
6. (obsolete, c. 1425–1882) A place of shelter; a haven.^[3][10][2]

Related words

• receive
• reception
• receptive
• receipt
• recipe
• recipient
• receptacular

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b 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. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
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 Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins