Etymologically
Log in

receptor

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:33. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɹɪˈsɛp.tə/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman receptour, receptur, and Middle French recepteur (“a person who harbours criminals”), recorded in Anglo-Norman from about 1292 or earlier,[2][3][4] and of their source Latin receptor (“a person who receives into shelter or hiding”),[2][5] an agent noun formed with -or on receptus, the past participle of recipiō (“to receive, hold”),[2][6][3] the verb behind receive.[3][7] In its modern scientific senses the word was taken afresh from Latin;[2] the immunological sense follows German Receptor, used by Paul Ehrlich in 1900,[2] and the Oxford Dictionary of English describes the word as coined in German in the early 20th century.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who harbours criminals or receives stolen goods: c. 1450, in Jacob's Well.[2][3] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century, and in Anglo-French to the late 13th.[3]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense, a receiver of criminals or of stolen goods, died out by about 1700,[2][8] after which the word was rare until the late 19th century, when it was briefly used for the receiver of a telephone (1898).[2][8] Its modern life began in the sciences around 1900: Ehrlich's receptors were molecules that bind a toxin or other foreign substance, at first equated with antibodies;[2] in 1906 the physiologist Sherrington used the word for an organ or nerve ending that responds to a stimulus,[2][6] and since 1910 it has named a molecule in a cell that binds a particular drug, hormone or neurotransmitter.[2][3]

Timeline

  • about 1292 – Anglo-Norman receptur, a harbourer of criminals.[2]
  • c. 1450 – a person who harbours criminals or stolen goods (obsolete by 1700).[2]
  • 1898 – (rare) the receiver of a telephone.[2]
  • 1900 – (immunology) a molecule that binds a toxin or foreign substance.[2][3]
  • 1906 – (physiology) an organ or nerve ending that responds to stimuli.[2]
  • 1910 – (physiology) a molecule that binds a drug, hormone or neurotransmitter.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (physiology) An organ, cell or nerve ending that responds to a particular kind of stimulus, such as light, heat or pressure, and passes it on as nerve impulses.
  2. (biochemistry) A molecule, usually a protein in or on a cell, that binds a specific substance such as a hormone, drug or neurotransmitter and so causes a response in the cell.
  3. A device that receives signals or information.

Word family

  • adrenoreceptor
  • chemoreceptor
  • electroreceptor
  • mechanoreceptor
  • thermoreceptor

References

  1. ^ 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 q 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. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press