Wordwyrt

digestive

/daɪˈdʒestɪv/digh-JEH-stiv
/daɪˈdʒɛstɪv/digh-JEH-stiv

Meaningrelating to digestion

Common meaning: of digesting food

Other meanings: a plain sweet biscuit

‘apart’ + ‘to carry, carry on’ → digestive

Journey through time

  1. Latingerō, gessī, gestum‘to carry, carry on’
  2. Middle Englishdigestsource
  3. Englishdigest‘to break down food in the body’
  4. Englishformed in English from digestdigestive‘of digesting food’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Formed in English from digest + -ive.

Dictionary: Skeat (1898), DIGEST, p.166 · scan

Roots

Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app