Etymologically
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traumatic

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /tɹɔːˈmætɪk/[1]
  • US: /tɹɔˈmætɪk/, /tɹɑˈmætɪk/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin traumaticus (“relating to wounds”),[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek τραυματικός (traumatikós, “of or relating to a wound”),[2][3][6] formed on τραῦμα (traûma, “a wound”), the source of trauma.[2][4][5] Etymonline adds that it came partly through traumatique, which the OED records in French in the 16th century.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of, relating to or caused by a wound or external injury: 1656, in Thomas Blount's Glossographia.[2][3] The Shorter Oxford records an early sense, used for healing wounds, from the mid to the late 17th century,[7] and the OED has the noun traumatic, a remedy for wounds, from 1683 to 1694.[2]

Semantic evolution

For two centuries the word belonged to surgery, describing wounds and conditions caused by them;[2][7] the Oxford Dictionary of English dates the word only from the mid 19th century.[8] The psychological sense, relating to an emotional shock that disturbs behaviour, is recorded from 1889, in Thomas Savill's translation of Charcot's lectures on the nervous system.[2][3] From 1962, in a letter of Aldous Huxley, it has also been used in a weaker, general way for anything distressing or upsetting.[2][3] In botany, traumatic acid (1939) is a plant hormone that helps damaged tissue to heal.[2]

Timeline

  • 1656 – relating to wounds or injury.[2][3]
  • 1683 – noun, a remedy for wounds (obsolete by 1694).[2]
  • 1889 – relating to emotional shock.[2][3]
  • 1939 – traumatic acid, a plant hormone.[2]
  • 1962 – distressing, upsetting.[2][3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. (medicine) Relating to or caused by a physical wound or injury: a traumatic fracture of the wrist.
  2. (psychology) Relating to or causing a deep emotional shock with lasting effects.
  3. (informal) Very upsetting or unpleasant: Moving house with three toddlers was traumatic.

Word family

  • traumatically
  • posttraumatic
  • post-traumatic stress disorder

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press