Obesity
/oʊˈbiː.sɪ.ti/noun
A condition of having excessive body fat that can impair health.
Did you know?The word ultimately traces back to Latin obēsus, the past participle of ob- + edere, meaning “eaten away” or “devoured,” so the root image is not fatness itself but being consumed.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*h₁ed-
“to eat”
Latin
Latin
edere
“to eat”
Latin
Latin
obēsus
“eaten away, devoured; later, fat or corpulent”
Late Latin
Latin
obesitas
“corpulence, fatness”
Middle French
French
obésité
“corpulence, obesity”
16th Century
English
obesitie
“corpulence, fatness”
Modern English
English
obesity
“excessive body fat that can impair health”
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