urethra

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin ūrēthra,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek οὐρήθρα (ourḗthra, “passage for urine”),^[2][4][6][7] from οὐρέω (ouréō, “to urinate”),^[2][3][1] from οὖρον (oûron, “urine”).^[7][6] Etymonline and Klein say the Greek word was coined by Hippocrates.^[7][6] Dictionary.com analyses it as the stem of ureter with a noun suffix “-thra”.^[8] The Late Latin word is also the source of French urètre, Italian uretra and Spanish uretra.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave a French word as its source.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The tube through which urine passes out of the bladder: 1634, in Thomas Johnson's translation of the surgeon Paré's works.^[2][5][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1630s.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The anatomical meaning has stayed the same since the 17th century;^[2][10] the dictionaries add that in males the urethra also carries semen.^[3][11][10] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the passage of the urine", with a quotation from the surgeon Wiseman.^[9]

Timeline

• 1634 – the canal by which urine is discharged from the bladder.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. In anatomy, the canal that carries urine from the bladder out of the body, and in males also carries semen; plural urethras or urethrae.^{[3][5][11][12]}

Word family

• urethral
• urethritis

Related words

• urine
• ureter
• urinate

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins