sclerosis

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sclirosis,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Medieval Latin sclerosis (“a hardness, hard tumour”),^[5][6][7][2] from Ancient Greek σκλήρωσις (sklḗrōsis, “hardening”),^[5][7][8][4] from σκληρόω (sklēróō, “to harden”), from σκληρός (sklērós, “hard”),^[7][8][4][3] with the suffix -osis.^[5][6][9] The Greek adjective is also behind skeleton.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hard external tumour: 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum,^[7][2] which explains that if melancholic matter swells outside the body the swelling is called slirosis.^[2] Barnhart has the form sclirosus in 1392.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The medieval sense, a hard tumour, did not outlast 1400 in the OED's record.^[7][2] From 1543 the word meant a morbid hardening of any tissue,^[7] later especially of the circulatory or nervous system,^[9][10] as in arteriosclerosis and multiple sclerosis.^[4][10] Botanists used it from 1884 for the hardening of plant cell walls.^[7][4] The figurative sense, rigidity or excessive resistance to change, appeared in 1954 in a translation of Duverger's Political Parties.^[7][5]

Timeline

• 1392 – the form sclirosus.^[6]
• 1398 – a hard external tumour (obsolete by 1400).^[7][2]
• 1543 – a morbid hardening of tissue.^[7]
• 1884 – the hardening of plant cell walls, in botany.^[7]
• 1954 – rigidity, resistance to change.^[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An abnormal hardening of body tissue, from an overgrowth of fibrous tissue, as in the walls of arteries.^[4][10]
2. A disease marked by such hardening; often short for multiple sclerosis.^[4][10]
3. (botany) The hardening of a plant cell wall by deposits of lignin.^[4][10]
4. Rigidity or excessive resistance to change: the sclerosis of the old party machine.^[7][10]

Word family

• arteriosclerosis
• atherosclerosis
• osteosclerosis
• otosclerosis
• sclerotic
• amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Related words

• sclera
• sclerotherapy
• scleroderma
• skeleton

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b 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 f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins