Etymologically
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sclerosis

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /skləˈɹəʊ.sɪs/[1]
  • US: /skləˈɹoʊ.sɪs/[1]

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

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