somatic

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σωματικός (sōmatikós, “of the body”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from σῶμα (sôma, “body”).^{[2][3][5][6][8]} Etymonline speaks of a Latinized form of the Greek word,^[3] and Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary take it as borrowed partly or wholly through French somatique,^[9][10] which the OED gives only as a parallel formation.^[2] The Greek adjective is formed with the suffix that gives English -ic.^[9][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the body; bodily, physical: 1775, in John Ash's dictionary.^[2][9] Etymonline dates the word to 1753, in the sense "pertaining to the material body" as opposed to the soul or mind.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a learned synonym of bodily and corporeal, contrasted with the mind or spirit.^[2][3][4] In the 19th century it was taken into science: from 1836 for what affects the body,^[2] from 1859, in Huxley, in anatomy and physiology for the parts of the body,^[2] and since 1888 in biology for the soma, the body cells as opposed to the germ cells.^[2][4] Anatomists also use it for the body wall or trunk, as distinct from the viscera or limbs,^[7][8] and the American Heritage Dictionary records a sense for the part of the nervous system that controls voluntary movement.^[10] Bentham used the word as a noun in 1817 for the study of the body, somatology.^[2]

Timeline

• 1775 – of or relating to the body; bodily, physical.^[2][9][7] Etymonline dates the word to 1753.^[3]
• 1817 – noun, the study of the body, in Bentham.^[2]
• 1836 – affecting the body.^[2]
• 1859 – in anatomy and physiology, of parts of the body.^[2]
• 1888 – of the soma, as opposed to the germ cells.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to or affecting the body, especially as distinct from the mind; physical, corporeal: somatic symptoms of stress.^{[7][8][11][10]}
2. (biology) Relating to the soma, the cells of an organism other than the germ cells: a somatic cell.^[7][11][4]
3. (anatomy) Relating to the wall of the body or to the trunk, as distinct from the viscera, head and limbs.^[7][8][10]
4. Relating to the part of the nervous system that controls voluntary movement.^[10]

Word family

• somatically
• psychosomatic
• somaticize
• somatic cell

Related words

• somatoplasm
• soma
• somato-
• chromosome

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press