systemic

Etymology

It is formed from system and -ic,^[2][3][4] irregularly, as the Shorter Oxford, Etymonline and the Oxford Dictionary of English note,^[5][6][7] since the expected form is systematic; the OED compares an earlier adjective ending in -ical.^[2] Etymonline explains the separate form as a way of keeping this medical and biological meaning apart from systematic.^[6] The sense of a lesion affecting a single nerve tract followed systématique.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In anatomy and physiology, of the parts of the circulation that carry blood from the heart to the body and back, as opposed to the lungs: 1803, in Barclay's New Anatomical Nomenclature.^[2][3] Etymonline glosses the first use as "of or pertaining to the body as a whole".^[6]

Semantic evolution

From 1834 the word was used in medicine for what affects more than one system of organs, or the body as a whole,^[2] and since 1851 for a drug or treatment that acts on the whole body rather than locally.^[2] The general meaning, relating to a system or method, is found from 1850 but is now rare.^[2][6] In 1945 it was applied to pesticides that are taken up into the tissues of a plant,^[2] and the noun, a systemic pesticide, followed;^[5][3] Merriam-Webster dates the noun 1951, while the OED has it from 1893 for a systemic drug.^[3][2] The sense that is now common outside medicine, inherent in a system as a whole (as in systemic racism), is recorded from 1887.^[2]

Timeline

• 1803 – (anatomy) of the general circulation of the blood.^[2][3]
• 1834 – (medicine) affecting the body as a whole.^[2]
• 1850 – of or relating to a system in general (now rare).^[2][6]
• 1851 – of a medicine or treatment, acting on the whole body.^[2]
• 1871 – (geology) relating to a stratigraphic system.^[2]
• 1887 – relating to or inherent in a system as a whole.^[2]
• 1893 – noun, a systemic drug.^[2]
• 1945 – of a pesticide, absorbed into a plant's tissues.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Affecting or relating to a whole system, rather than one part of it: The report found systemic failures in the regulator's approach.
2. (medicine) Affecting the whole body rather than one part; of a drug, acting throughout the body.
3. (anatomy) Of the part of the circulation that supplies the body through the aorta, as opposed to the lungs.
4. Of a pesticide or fungicide, absorbed into the tissues of a plant so that the plant itself becomes toxic to pests.

Noun

1. A systemic pesticide or drug.

Word family

• systemically
• nonsystemic
• systemic circulation
• systemic lupus erythematosus

Related words

• system
• systematic
• systematize
• systemize

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 r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press