umbilical

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin umbilīcālis (“of the navel”),^[2][3][4][5] from Latin umbilīcus (“navel; centre”).^[2][4][6][7] The Oxford Dictionary of English allows that it came from French ombilical as well,^[8] and the Shorter Oxford takes it from the older French form, now replaced by ombilical.^[9] French recorded the adjective from 1541, as did English.^[2] The Latin noun is traced to a suffixed form of the Proto-Indo-European *(o)nobh- (“navel”) root,^[4][7] the source also of navel,^[7][10] and Weekley and Skeat compare Ancient Greek ὀμφαλός (omphalós, “navel”).^[10][11] The adjective replaced the earlier umbilic, borrowed in Middle English from the Latin noun.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to the navel: c. 1541, in Robert Copland's translation of Guy de Chauliac's questions on surgery,^[2] 1541 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The word began as an anatomical and medical term for things belonging to the navel, such as the umbilical arteries and veins (1615).^[2] The phrase umbilical cord is recorded from 1753, for the cord joining the fetus to the placenta;^[2][3][4] the native term is navel string.^[4] Botany borrowed the phrase for the stalk that joins a seed to the placenta (1731),^[2] and conchology and geometry used the adjective of an umbilicus (1755, 1728).^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as belonging to the navel.^[12] Used alone as a noun, umbilical meant the umbilical cord from 1774.^[6] In the space age the cord gave its name to a cable or line supplying a missile or spacecraft before launch (1948), and later to the line carrying power and supplies to a deep-sea diver (1968).^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records a figurative sense, joined as if by an umbilical cord, closely linked.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1541 – of or relating to the navel.^[2]
• 1615 – in umbilical artery, umbilical vein.^[2]
• 1731 – (botany) umbilical cord, the stalk attaching a seed.^[2]
• 1753 – umbilical cord, the cord attaching the fetus to the placenta.^[2][3][4]
• 1774 – noun, an umbilical cord.^[6]
• 1797 – affecting or applied to the navel, in medicine.^[2]
• 1948 – umbilical cord, a cable supplying a missile before launch.^[2]
• 1968 – a line supplying a deep-sea diver.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to, or near the navel or the umbilical cord: an umbilical hernia.^[13][6][14]
2. Located in the central region of the abdomen.^[6][14]
3. Joined as if by an umbilical cord; very closely linked.^[6]

Noun

1. An umbilical cord.^[13][6]
2. A cable or line that supplies a spacecraft, missile or deep-sea diver with power, air or other services.^[2][14]

Word family

• umbilically
• nonumbilical
• postumbilical
• subumbilical
• umbilical cord
• umbilical hernia

Related words

• umbilicus
• umbilic
• navel
• nave
• omphalos

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt