sinuous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sinuōsus (“full of folds or bendings”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} or partly borrowed from French sinueux,^{[2][8][9][10]} and it has parallels in Italian sinuoso, Spanish sinuoso and Portuguese sinuoso.^[2] The Latin adjective is formed from sinus (“curve, fold, bend”) and the suffix -ōsus.^[6][3] Etymonline calls the noun of unknown origin, and reports de Vaan's view that it is probably connected with Albanian gji (“breast”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Full of turns or curves: 1578, in J. Banister's Historie of Man.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

The word first described curving forms in general, then from 1633 also rivers, coasts and roads.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "bending in and out", with a quotation from Bacon on a pipe.^[11] Two figurative uses followed in the mid-19th century: "not straightforward, morally crooked" (1850), which Etymonline finds especially in the late 19th century,^[2][4] and "intricate, roundabout" (1853).^[2] The word was then applied to movement: of movements taking place in curves from 1881, and of animals and people moving with supple bends of the body from 1897.^[2] This last is the sense of Merriam-Webster Unabridged's "strong lithe movements" and Collins's "supple, lithe".^[6][12]

Timeline

• 1578 – full of curves, winding.^[2][3][6]
• 1633 – of rivers, coasts, roads and routes.^[2]
• 1850 – figuratively, morally crooked, not straightforward.^[2]
• 1853 – intricate, roundabout.^[2]
• 1881 – of movements, taking place in curves.^[2]
• 1897 – of animals and people, moving with supple bends of the body.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of turns or curves; bending in and out; winding or serpentine: a sinuous mountain road.^[6][12][2]
2. Moving with supple, strong curves of the body; lithe: the sinuous grace of a cat.^[6][12][2]
3. Intricate, complex or roundabout.^[6][12][2]
4. Not straightforward; devious, especially morally.^[6][12][2]

Word family

• sinuously
• sinuousness
• subsinuous
• unsinuous
• sinuosity

Related words

• sine
• insinuate
• sinus

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 r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins