suppository

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin suppositōrium (“medical plug”),^[2][3][4][5] recorded from the 6th century and in British sources from the 13th,^[2] a noun use of the neuter of Late Latin suppositōrius (“placed underneath”),^[2][3][6][5] from Latin suppositus, past participle of suppōnō (“to put or place under”),^[3][7][8] from sub- (“under”) and pōnō (“to put, place”).^[7][3] The American Heritage Dictionary takes the English word through Old French suppositorie,^[7] and Barnhart allows the influence of suppositoire.^[8] The OED compares Middle French suppositoire, Old Occitan sopozitor, Spanish supositorio and Italian suppositorio.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A medicinal preparation inserted into a body opening: the OED's first quotation is from a translation of Lanfranc's Science of Cirurgie of before 1400, "helpe him þerto, or with clisterie, or wiþ suppositorie".^[2] Barnhart dates a rectal suppository to 1392,^[8] and Etymonline to the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In early use the word covered a preparation for any body opening other than the mouth;^[2] it now means chiefly one for the rectum, vagina or urethra.^[2][9][5] In medieval Latin suppositorium could also mean a kind of paten and a prop.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the English word simply as "a kind of solid clyster".^[10] From 1573 to 1675 it served figuratively, especially as a term of personal abuse, first in Gascoigne's Supposes.^[2] The adjective suppository is partly the noun used attributively (1599) and partly from the Latin adjective, with the senses "false" (1641–1709) and "hypothetical" (from 1642), now rare.^[2][4]

Timeline

• before 1400 – a medicinal preparation for insertion into a body opening.^[2] Barnhart gives 1392.^[8]
• 1573 – figuratively, a term of abuse (obsolete by 1675).^[2]
• 1599 – adjective, administered as a suppository.^[2]
• 1641 – adjective, not genuine, false (obsolete by 1709).^[2]
• 1642 – adjective, hypothetical, conjectural.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small solid cone or cylinder of medication, inserted into the rectum, vagina or urethra, where it melts at body temperature and releases the drug: The nurse gave the child a fever suppository.^{[9][7][6][11]}

Adjective

1. Administered as a suppository, or relating to one.^[2][4]
2. (rare) Hypothetical or conjectural; supposed.^[2][4]

Related words

• depository
• depot
• repository
• supposition
• suppose
• suppositious

References

1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e 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 Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins