stigma

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin stigma (“mark, brand; tattoo marking a slave or criminal”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} borrowed from Ancient Greek στίγμα (stígma, “mark made by a pointed instrument, puncture, tattoo mark, brand”),^[2][3][6] from στίζω (stízō, “to prick, mark, tattoo”),^[2][3][5][7] from Proto-Indo-European *steig- (“to stick; pointed”).^[3][4][8] The same root gave stick and stitch.^[8][2] An earlier anglicized form, stigme (“a wound or mark on the flesh”), appears about 1400,^[9][6][3] and Etymonline records stigmate from the late 14th century, from the Latin plural stigmata.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mark burned into the skin with a hot iron as a sign of disgrace or subjection; a brand: 1596, in J. Harington's New Discovrse (the Metamorphosis of Aiax).^[2][6] Merriam-Webster dates the first use to about 1593.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In ancient Greece and Rome runaway slaves and criminals were branded as a sign of disgrace, and the brand was called a stigma;^[10] St Paul's "marks" of the Lord Jesus (Galatians 6:17) are stigmata in the Vulgate.^[10] By the time the word reached English it already suggested a brand of shame.^[8] The figurative sense, a mark of disgrace attached to a person or thing, is recorded before 1620,^[2][6][3] and it is the sense that survived, applied to poverty, divorce, alcoholism and other conditions that society frowns on.^[10] The plural stigmata was used from 1632 for marks like the wounds of the crucified Christ, said to appear on the bodies of saints;^[2][6] Merriam-Webster notes that St Francis of Assisi was the first recorded bearer.^[2][6][10] Science then took the word up: in medicine for a spot on the skin (1661), in zoology for an insect's breathing pore (1747) and in botany for the part of the pistil that receives pollen (1753).^[2][6][10] From 1859 it also meant a distinguishing mark of something bad, and in pathology a sign of a disorder such as hysteria.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave only "a brand" and "a mark of infamy".^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – stigme, a wound or mark on the flesh.^[9][6]
• 1596 – a brand burned on the skin of a slave or criminal.^[2][6]
• before 1620 – a mark of disgrace or infamy.^[2][6]
• 1632 – stigmata, marks resembling the wounds of Christ.^[2][6]
• 1661 – a spot on the skin, especially one that bleeds.^[2]
• 1747 – a breathing pore of an insect; a spiracle.^[2]
• 1753 – the part of a flower's pistil that receives the pollen.^[2][6]
• 1828 – indelible bloodstains on the floor of a murder room.^[2]
• 1859 – a distinguishing mark of something bad; a sign of a disorder.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mark of disgrace or public disapproval attached to an act, condition or person: the stigma once attached to divorce.^[4][12][5]
2. (medicine) A visible sign of a disease, or a small mark on the skin such as a birthmark.^[4][12]
3. (plural stigmata) Marks like the wounds of the crucified Christ, said to appear on the bodies of some devout people.^[12][2]
4. (botany) The part of the pistil of a flower that receives the pollen.^[12][2][4]
5. (zoology) A breathing pore of an insect, a spiracle; also a pigmented eyespot in some protozoans.^[12][2]
6. (archaic) A mark burned into the skin; a brand.^[5][2][11]

Word family

• stigmal
• stigmatic
• stigmatize

Related words

• stick
• stitch
• stigmata

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 s t u v 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. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b 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)
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b 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