obesity English · revision 39571

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1611, R. Cotgrave, A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues|origins=la edō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /oʊˈbɛzɪti/^(Wiktionary)

+ * UK: /ə(ʊ)ˈbiːsɪti/^(Wiktionary)

+ * US: /oʊˈbisɪti/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|fr|obésité]] (recorded in French in 1550) and partly directly [[la|obēsitās|t=fatness, stoutness]],^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(SOED 2002) a noun formed on [[m|la|obēsus|t=fat, stout, plump]] with the suffix [[m|la|-tās]].^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024)^(Klein 1966) The Latin adjective meant literally “that has eaten itself fat”: it is the past participle of [[m|la|obedō|t=to eat away, devour]], from [[m|la|ob-|t=about, over]] and [[m|la|edō|t=to eat]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) although the OED notes that this compound verb is not otherwise attested.^(OED 2026) Etymonline traces the simple verb to [[ine-pro|*h₁ed-|t=to eat]], the root of [[eat]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The condition of being extremely fat: 1611, spelt ''obesitie'', in Randle Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.^(OED 2026)^(Barnhart 1988) Etymonline dates the word to the 1610s and Merriam-Webster to about 1611.^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The noun is older than its adjective: [[obese]] is first recorded in 1651,^(OED 2026)^(Barnhart 1988) and Barnhart and Etymonline take it partly as a back-formation from ''obesity'';^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) the OED notes that the adjective was rare before the 19th century.^(OED 2026) Johnson (1755) defined ''obesity'' as morbid fatness, quoting Nehemiah Grew's ''Cosmologia Sacra'' on the diseases that depend on it.^(Johnson 1755) Merriam-Webster now defines it as a bodily condition marked by excessive deposits of fat,^(MWU 2024) and the OED also records an extended use for things other than the body.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1611 – ''obesitie'', in Cotgrave's dictionary.^(OED 2026)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1651 – the adjective ''obese''.^(OED 2026)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024)

+ * 1755 – Johnson defines it as morbid fatness.^(Johnson 1755)

+ * 1902 – the OED's first edition gives a pronunciation with a short ''e'', /əʊˈbɛsɪtɪ/.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The condition of being very [[fat]] or [[overweight]], with an excessive store of body fat.^(MWU 2024)^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002)

+ # ''(extended use)'' Excessive size or bulk in something other than the body: ''the obesity of the new tax code''.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[antiobesity]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[obese]]

+ * [[eat]]

+ * [[edible]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The OED's first edition (1902) gave the pronunciation with a short ''e'' (/əʊˈbɛsɪtɪ/), and some early 20th-century American dictionaries, among them the ''Century Dictionary'' (1911) and Webster (1934), also recorded /-bɛ-/;^(OED 2026) Daniel Jones's pronouncing dictionaries, from 1913 on, recorded only /-biː-/, the usual pronunciation today.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}