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abdomen

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word abdomen

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [abˈdoː.mɛn][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [abˈdɔː.men][1]

Forms

abdōmen n (genitive abdōminis); third declension[1] The grammarians and glossaries also have the spelling abdūmen.[2]

Etymology

The origin is unclear.[3][4] It has been explained from the verb abdō (“to conceal”), as *ap-dhoh1-mn, with the original meaning “hidden part”, but de Vaan finds that assumption unfounded.[3][1][5] The Germanic words that Walde and Hofmann compare, Old High German intuoma and Middle Low German ingedōme (“intestines; furniture”), may rather have been formed within Germanic from the verb “to do”.[3] The TLL also compares the Old High German word,[2] and Lewis & Short suggest either a connection with adeps (“fat”), as if for ⟨adipomen⟩, or with the verb for concealing.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan finds it from Plautus on, said first of pigs;[3] Plautus lists it among foods in the Curculio: pernam, abdomen, sumen suis, “ham, belly, sow's udder”.[4][7]

Semantic evolution

In animals it is the fat underpart of the body as food, the belly of pork or, in Lucilius, of tuna.[4][6] Of people it is the belly or paunch,[4][6] already in Plautus, where a knife “longs to take this belly off the adulterer”.[4] It stood for fatness, as in Juvenal's paunchy Montanus,[4] and in Apuleius for the seat of the appetites, especially gluttony.[4][1]

English borrowed it in the 1540s, first for the meat of the belly.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of pork belly and of a man's belly.[4][3][7]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius writes of the bellies of tuna.[6][7]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it in medicine.[6][7]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it as a sign of obesity.[4][7]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius makes it the seat of the appetites.[4][7]
  • 1540s – English borrows it as abdomen.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The fat underpart of an animal's body as food, the belly.[4][6]
  2. In people, the belly, paunch, abdomen.[4][6][1]
  3. (figurative) Gluttony, the appetites.[4][1]

Word family

  • abdōminālis
  • English abdomen

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Abdomen.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/abdomen. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·