Etymologically
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align

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /əˈlaɪn/, /æˈlaɪn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English alinen,[2][3] borrowed from Middle French aligner (“to arrange in a line”), also alinher,[4][3][5][6] from Old French alignier (“to set or lay in line”),[7][3][8] formed from a- (“to”) and ligner (“to line”),[4][7][3] or from the phrase à ligne (“into line”).[9][8][10] The French word comes from Latin ad- and līnea (“line”),[5][3] and Barnhart and Etymonline give the verb as from līneō (“to reduce to a straight line”).[3][7] The Anglo-Norman aliner is recorded from about 1170, meaning to form a straight line.[11] The OED notes that the French verb had the sense of a male animal mating from the 14th century.[4] The earlier English form was aline;[3][7][12] the spelling align, with a -g- that Etymonline calls unetymological in English, spread in the 1800s in imitation of French.[3][7] Skeat held the older spelling to be the better one for English.[12] The OED compares Spanish alinear, Portuguese alinhar and Italian allineare.[4] It is related to line.[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a male animal, to mate with a female: about 1425, in Edward, Duke of York's Master of Game, of wolves and hounds,[4][2][3] translating the French alinher.[2] This hunting sense is obsolete.[4][8]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense, to place things in a line, appeared afresh from French in 1693, in John Evelyn's translation of a gardening dictionary by La Quintinie;[4][6] the Oxford Dictionary of English and Collins date the word to the 17th century.[10][13] Military drill gave the uses "to bring into line with something else" and "to fall into line" in 1781,[4] and the intransitive "to form a line, line up" in 1815.[4] From the 1870s, in American newspapers, it was used of associating oneself with a cause or group, or bringing someone into alliance with one,[4] and Etymonline dates the international political sense to 1934.[7] The noun alignment is recorded from 1790.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1425 – of a male animal, to mate (obsolete).[4][2]
  • 1693 – to arrange things in a line.[4][6]
  • 1781 – to bring into line with something; to fall into line.[4]
  • 1790 – alignment.[3]
  • 1815 – to form a line, line up.[4]
  • 1871 – to associate oneself with a cause or group.[4]
  • 1934 – international political alignment.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To place or arrange things in a straight line, or in line with each other: Align the bottom edges of the two posters.[13][6][4]
  2. To adjust the parts of a machine or structure, such as the wheels of a car, so that they stand in the proper relation to each other.[13][6]
  3. To bring a person, group or country into agreement or alliance with another; often reflexive, to side with: The party aligned itself with the farmers' union.[13][4]
  4. To fall into line; to come into alignment.[13][4]
  5. (obsolete) Of a male animal, to mate with a female.[4][2][8]

Word family

  • aligner
  • realign

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins