syringe

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English siringe, also siryng, and earlier suringa,^[2][3] borrowed from Medieval Latin siringa, also syringa,^[4][5][6][7] from Late Latin syringa (“injection”),^[5][8][2] an alteration of sȳrinx,^[9][10] from Ancient Greek σῦριγξ (sûrinx, “tube, channel, pipe, shepherd's pipe”),^[2][3][6][9] through its accusative.^[2][3] Etymonline relates the Greek noun to a verb meaning to pipe, whistle or hiss (see susurration),^[2] and Klein traces it to an imitative base Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to sound”);^[6] Barnhart calls its origin uncertain.^[3] The Medieval Latin word is also the source of Old French ceringue, French seringue, Italian sciringa, Spanish jeringa and Portuguese seringa.^[4] From it came a pronunciation with final /ŋ/, which seems to have lasted until near the end of the 17th century; in the 16th century the word began to follow the oblique cases and the plural of the classical form, with a final e and /dʒ/.^[4] Dictionary.com takes the modern form as a new singular made from the Late Latin plural.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A catheter, or a tube for washing out wounds: before 1398, as suringa, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum.^[3][2] The OED's first quotation, for a small cylindrical instrument for drawing in liquid and squirting it out, is from a translation of Arderne's treatises on fistula, before 1425.^[4]

Semantic evolution

At first the syringe was a medical tool, a small hand pump or a catheter used to irrigate wounds.^[2][3] From 1659 the name was given to similar instruments for other jobs, such as compressing air or spraying plants,^[4] and Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a pipe through which a liquid is squirted.^[12] The verb, to treat with a syringe, followed in 1610,^[4][3][5] and to inject a liquid with one in 1653.^[4] The hypodermic syringe, with a needle, is recorded from 1884 in Etymonline^[2] and before 1889 in Barnhart.^[3] From 1826 the word was also applied to certain natural structures in insects.^[4] Ayto explains the name by the instrument's tube shape; because the stems of the lilac and the mock orange were used to make pipes, those shrubs were called syringa.^[9][13]

Timeline

• before 1398 – suringa, a catheter or a tube for irrigating wounds.^[3]
• before 1425 – siringe, a small instrument for drawing in and squirting out liquid.^[4][3]
• before 1475 – the spelling syringe.^[3]
• 1610 – verb, to treat with a syringe.^[4][3][5]
• 1653 – verb, to inject a liquid with a syringe.^[4]
• 1659 – a similar instrument for compressing air, watering plants and other uses.^[4]
• 1826 – natural structures in insects.^[4]
• 1884 – the hypodermic syringe.^[2] Barnhart records this sense before 1889.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tube with a nozzle and a piston or rubber bulb, used to draw in a liquid and force it out in a stream; in medicine, such a device fitted with a hollow needle to inject fluids into the body or draw them out: The nurse filled the syringe from the vial.^[14][5][4]
2. A similar device for spraying, injecting or drawing up liquids, as in gardening or cooking.^[14][4]

Verb

1. To clean, wash out or treat with a syringe: The doctor syringed his ears.^[14][5][4]
2. To inject a liquid by means of a syringe.^[14][4]
3. To spray plants with a fine jet of water.^[5][4]

Word family

• syringeful
• hypodermic syringe

Related words

• syrinx
• syringa
• susurration

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins