tubular

Etymology

Dictionary.com takes it as borrowed from New Latin tubulāris,^[2] while the OED, the Shorter Oxford and Etymonline form it from tubulus (“a small tube, a pipe”) and the suffix -ar.^[3][4][5][6] Merriam-Webster instead analyses it as tubus (“tube, pipe”) with the English ending -ular.^[7] Tubulus is a diminutive of tubus, a word of unknown origin, the source of tube.^[5][8] The OED compares French tubulaire, recorded in French from 1771.^[3] Johnson (1755) derived the adjective directly from the Latin noun.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having the form of a tube or pipe; hollow and cylindrical: first recorded in 1682, in N. Grew's Anatomy of Plants.^[3] Merriam-Webster dates the sense to 1673,^[7] Etymonline to the 1670s,^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1665–75.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word began in the natural sciences, describing the shape of parts of plants and animals: botanists applied it from 1776 to flowers and florets made mostly of a tube, and anatomists and zoologists from 1794.^[3][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as resembling a pipe, long and hollow, quoting a description of a snout in Grew's Musæum.^[9] From the early 18th century it also meant done through tubes, and since 1804 it has meant made up of several tubes, as in a tubular boiler.^[3][7] Medicine used it for a high-pitched breathing sound heard over the windpipe (1834) and for a narrowed field of vision (1903).^[3][7] As a noun it has meant a tubular bridge (1861), a tubular tyre (1924) and, in the oil industry, tubular goods (1975).^[3] In 1982 it became American teenage slang for "wonderful, excellent", first in Valley Girl speech; the OED and Etymonline trace it to surfers' talk of a hollow, curling wave, the tube, ideal for riding.^{[3][5][10][4]} Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes Frank Zappa's song "Valley Girl" (1982).^[10]

Timeline

• 1682 – having the form of a tube.^[3] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1673.^[7]
• before 1716 – relating to or done by means of a tube.^[3]
• 1776 – in botany, of a flower or floret consisting mainly of a tube.^[3]
• 1804 – made of a number of tubes, as a tubular boiler.^[3]
• 1834 – of a breathing sound like air blown through a tube.^[3]
• 1861 – noun, a tubular bridge.^[3]
• 1903 – tubular vision, tunnel vision.^[3]
• 1982 – slang, of a wave, hollow and curved; wonderful, excellent.^[3][5][10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having the shape of a tube; long, hollow and cylindrical: The bench has tubular steel legs.^[11][7][3]
2. Made of or provided with tubes: a tubular radiator.^[7][11][3]
3. Of or relating to a tube, or done by means of tubes.^[11][3]
4. (medicine) Of a breathing sound, high-pitched, as if produced through a tube.^[7][3]
5. (slang) Wonderful or excellent; of a wave, hollow and curling, good for surfing.^[3][10][4]

Word family

• tubularity
• tubularly
• intertubular
• multitubular
• nontubular

Related words

• tube
• tubule
• tuba

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b 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 c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins