tegument

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin tegumentum (“a covering”),^[2][3][4][5] also tegmentum,^[6] formed from tegō (“to cover”) and the suffix -mentum,^[6][5] from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“to cover”),^[3][4][7] which also gave Old Norse þak (“roof”) and Old English þæc (“roof, thatch”).^[7] Old French had tegument in the 13th century.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A covering of any kind, natural or artificial: c. 1440, in the Middle English translation of Palladius on husbandry.^[2][8] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The general sense "covering" came first.^[2] From 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne, the word was used in natural history and anatomy for the skin, coat, shell or husk of an animal or plant.^[2] Johnson (1755) notes that it "is seldom used but in anatomy or physicks", and quotes Browne on "hairy teguments".^[9] The longer integument has since become the usual word: Collins calls tegument its less common equivalent, and Merriam-Webster Unabridged defines it by that word alone.^[10][6]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – a covering, natural or artificial.^[2][8]
• 1646 – the natural covering of an animal or plant body, or of one of its parts.^[2]
• early 19th century – the derivatives tegumental and tegumentary.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A natural outer covering of an animal or plant, or of one of its parts, such as a skin, shell or husk; an integument.^[4][10][2]
2. A covering or coating in general.^[2][11]

Word family

• tegumentary

Related words

• integument
• tegmen
• thatch

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c 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)
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press