abdomen

Forms

abdomen m (plural abdómenes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin abdōmen (“belly, paunch”), a learned word of medicine first recorded in the middle of the 16th century.^[2][3][4][1] The DTME notes that the Latin word entered the Romance languages only as a learned borrowing, from the 16th century on.^[5]

In Latin the word named the fat lower part of the belly, at first of pigs, and in animals it was this part eaten as food.^[6][7] Bénaben adds that it was a familiar everyday word, also meaning “gluttony”, before it was specialised in medicine.^[8] Its origin is unclear: a link with abdō (“to hide, conceal”), as if “the hidden part”, is often proposed, but de Vaan finds that assumption unfounded.^[6][1] Lewis & Short also considered adeps (“fat”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record of the Spanish word to the physician Laguna, who died in 1560; the Breve diccionario gives the year 1555.^[2][3] Earlier hits in the CDH are Latin entries in glossaries: Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario of 1490 explains Latin abdomen as the fat of the flesh, and Nebrija, about 1495, gives it as one Latin equivalent of bajo de vientre “lower belly”.^[10] In Fragoso's Cirugía (c. 1581–1606) it is the fleshy covering of the belly, made up of eight small muscles.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades of 1726 defined the abdomen as a kind of membrane that holds and supports the guts, and called it a term used only by anatomists and surgeons.^[12][11] Terreros described it as the outer part that supports the belly from the groin to the diaphragm.^[13] In 1869 the Academy defined it instead as the cavity of the human trunk below the chest, and in 1884 it gave the etymology and a detailed anatomical description with three regions.^[14][15] The 1899 edition extended it to the cavity of any animal body that holds the intestines.^[16]

Today the word also names the hind region of the body of insects and other invertebrates, and colloquially fatness or a prominent belly.^[4][17] A Mexican text of 1849 mocks the genteel speech that avoided pecho and barriga and said abdomen instead.^[18]

Timeline

• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia explains the Latin word in his Universal vocabulario.^[10]
• 1555 – first record of the Spanish word, in Laguna.^[3][2]
• 1594 – the statutes of the University of Salamanca require the anatomy lecturer to show all the parts of the abdomen.^[10]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records it as a term of anatomists and surgeons.^[12]
• 1758 – first record from the Americas, in Venezuela.^[18]
• 1869 – the Academy defines it as the cavity of the human trunk.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives its Latin etymology.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The abdomen: the region of the trunk of vertebrates that holds the main organs of digestion and of the urinary and genital systems, bounded above by the diaphragm in mammals: Le hicieron una ecografía del abdomen.^[4][17]
2. (anatomy) The outer part of the body over this region; the belly.^[4]
3. (zoology) In insects and many other invertebrates, the region of the body that follows the thorax.^[4][17]
4. Fatness, adiposity.^[4]
5. The belly of a man or woman, especially a prominent one.^[4]

Word family

• abdominal

Related words

• vientre
• barriga
• Latin abdomen

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 11
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abdomen
4. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. abdomen
5. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. abdomen
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. abdomen
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. abdomen
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. abdomen
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 9
13. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 3
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 2
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 3
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 3
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abdomen
18. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. abdomen