intestin

intestin¹ internal

Etymology tree of intestin¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin intestīnus

French intestin

From the same root · intestin¹

Latin intestīnum ← intestīnus

Pronunciation

• /ɛ̃.tɛs.tɛ̃/^[1]

Forms

intestin (feminine intestine, masculine plural intestins, feminine plural intestines)^[1]

Etymology

The word for “internal” is borrowed from Latin intestīnus (“inner, internal”), recorded in the figurative phrase bellum intestīnum (“civil war”).^[2][3] The Latin adjective is formed from the adverb intus (“from within, inside”), itself built on in (“in”).^[3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pierre Bersuire's translation of Livy (1351–1356) has par intestine et privee sedicion “by internal and private sedition”, the use of conflicts within a society.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has kept its first, figurative use, now literary, for conflicts and struggles within a social body.^[3][6] Its other uses have gone out of use: of what happens inside a place (1532, Rabelais), inside the body (1549, fièvre intestine), within the soul (late 16th century) or within any thing (1690).^[3][7] Rey ascribes its decline to the noun intestin, and only guerre intestine “civil war” remains current.^[3]

Timeline

• 1351–1356 – Pierre Bersuire uses it of an internal sedition.^[2][3]
• 1532 – Rabelais uses it of what happens inside a place.^[3]
• 1549 – It is used of the body, in fièvre intestine.^[3][7]
• Late 16th century – It is used of what happens within the soul.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary) Happening within a society or group, internal: guerre intestine, “civil war”.^[6][3][7]
2. (obsolete) Located or occurring inside the body or inside a thing.^[6][2][5]
3. (dated) Found in the intestine, intestinal.^[2][1]

intestin² intestine

Etymology tree of intestin²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin intestīnus

Latin intestīnum

English intestine

French intestin

From the same root · intestin²

Latin intestīnālis ← intestīnum

Pronunciation

• /ɛ̃.tɛs.tɛ̃/^[1]

Forms

intestin m (plural intestins)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the organ is borrowed from Latin intestīnum (“gut”), often in the plural intestīna (“entrails”), the neuter of intestīnus (“internal”) used as a noun.^[4][3][1] Bloch and Wartburg see the Latin noun as a rendering of Ancient Greek ἔντερον (énteron).^[8] The Latin plural was also taken into Middle French as a feminine noun intestine in the 16th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in the 14th century, in the plural, in the sense “gut, bowel”, in Guy de Chauliac.^[4][3][6]

Semantic evolution

First used as an equivalent of boyau, a word mostly kept for animals, l'intestin or les intestins came to name the part of the digestive tract from the stomach to the anus; the singular is recorded from 1538.^[3][4] In anatomy it names the parts of the organ: intestin grêle (about 1560 in the plural, 1690 in the singular) and gros intestin (1636).^[3] Hugo used it as a metaphor in 1862, for l'intestin de Paris.^[3]

Timeline

• 14th century – Guy de Chauliac uses the plural for the bowels.^[4][3]
• 1538 – The singular l'intestin is recorded.^[4][3]
• c. 1560 – Intestins grêles names the small intestine.^[3]
• 1636 – Gros intestin is recorded.^[3]
• 1862 – Hugo writes of l'intestin de Paris.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The intestine, the part of the digestive tract following the stomach, also in the plural: l'intestin grêle, the small intestine, and le gros intestin, the large intestine.^[6][3][1]

Word family

• intestinal