Etymologically
Log in

vascular

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:30. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈvæskjələ/[1]
  • US: /ˈvæskjəlɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin vāsculāris (“of or relating to vessels or tubes”),[2][3][4][5] from Latin vāsculum (“a small vessel”), a diminutive of vās (“vessel”),[4][2][6][7] with the suffix -āris.[8] It is related to vase and vessel.[2][9] The OED compares French vasculaire and Italian vasculare.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of plant tissue, consisting of or having tubular vessels: Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it to 1672–73, in Nehemiah Grew's The Anatomy of Plants,[2][8] and the OED's first quotation is from the 1682 edition of that work.[4] Etymonline dates it to the 1670s, in anatomy.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word began in botany and was soon used in anatomy and physiology: by 1728 Chambers's Cyclopædia used it of vessels that carry fluids in the body.[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "consisting of vessels; full of vessels", quoting Arbuthnot on the circulation of the blood.[10] From 1830 whole plants could be called vascular,[4] and since 1870 diseases that affect the blood vessels.[4] In the 20th century the botanical term vascular wilt (1946) named a disease of the plant's vascular system.[4]

Timeline

  • 1672–73 – of plant tissue, consisting of vessels, in Grew.[2][8]
  • 1728 – of the vessels that carry fluids in the body.[4]
  • 1830 – of plants, having a vascular structure.[4]
  • 1870 – affecting the blood vessels.[4]
  • 1946 – vascular wilt, a plant disease.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. In biology and anatomy, relating to or made of vessels that carry fluids such as blood, lymph or sap: the vascular system.[11][8]
  2. Well supplied with blood vessels.[8][5]
  3. In botany, relating to or having xylem and phloem, the tissues that carry water and nutrients: ferns and other vascular plants.[5][8]
  4. Affecting the blood vessels: vascular disease.[4][8]

Word family

  • vascularity
  • vascularly
  • extravascular
  • fibrovascular
  • gastrovascular
  • hypervascular
  • intervascular
  • intravascular

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins