trunk

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tɹʌŋk/ (UK); /tɹʌŋk/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English trunke, tronke, from Anglo-Norman trunke, borrowed from Old French tronc (“alms box; trunk of a tree or body”),^[2][3][4] from Latin truncus, the trunk of a tree or of the body, a wooden block, originally an adjective, mutilated, cut off, of uncertain origin.^[3][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A box or case: 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum;^[3] the mid-15th century in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The box sense is said to come from boxes made from tree trunks,^[3][6] though Barnhart thinks simple resemblance more likely,^[3] and Etymonline suggests the body as the case of the organs.^[2] English took the tree and body senses from Old French in the late 15th century: the main stem of a tree from 1490 and the torso from 1494.^[3][7][2] A pipe or tube is from 1548.^[3] From this, perhaps influenced by trump, a trumpet, came the elephant's trunk, about 1565.^[3][2][4] Slang for the human nose is by 1700.^[2] Trunk hose, covering the body as distinct from the limbs, is from the 1630s.^[2] A trunk line of a railway is by 1843 and of the telephone by 1889.^[2] The luggage compartment of a car, from trunks fixed to the back of early models, is American from 1930.^[3][2] Trunks, short breeches, are from the 19th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 1440 – a box.^[3]
• 1490 – a tree trunk.^[3]
• 1494 – the torso.^[3]
• c. 1565 – an elephant's trunk.^[3]
• 1843 – a trunk line.^[2]
• 1930 – the boot of a car (US).^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The main woody stem of a tree.
2. The body of a person or animal apart from the head and limbs; the torso.
3. The long flexible nose of an elephant.
4. A large strong case or box for clothes and belongings.
5. (US, Canada) The luggage compartment of a car.
6. A main line or channel, as of a railway, telephone system or blood vessel.

Word family

• trunkful
• trunkless
• trunkfish
• trunk call
• Saratoga trunk
• trunk line
• brachiocephalic trunk
• nerve trunk

Related words

• truncate
• trunks
• trump

Usage notes

In Yorkshire and northern dialect, a trunk was a trump in card games.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)