Etymologically
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amendment

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 03:03. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /əˈmend.mənt/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English amendement, borrowed from Old French amendement (“correction, improvement”),[2][3][4] from amender (“to amend”) and the suffix -ment.[2][3] See amend.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Betterment, improvement: the early 13th century in Etymonline.[2] Self-reformation and general improvement are from 1297 in the OED.[6]

Semantic evolution

Correction of persons is from about 1300,[2] and recovery from illness from 1303.[6] The sense expanded in the 17th century:[2] correction of faults in a book or law is from 1599, and of an error in a legal writ from 1607.[6][2] The alteration of a bill before Parliament is from 1696 in the OED, the 1690s in Etymonline,[6][2] and the HTOED dates the sense “a formal change to a bill” to 1581.[7] The amendments to the United States Constitution are a familiar use.[8] In southern English dialect, amendment was manure spread on the land, a sense the HTOED dates from 1483.[9][7]

Timeline

  • early 13th century – improvement.[2]
  • 1303 – recovery from illness.[6]
  • 1599 – correction of a book or law.[6]
  • 1696 – a change to a bill.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A change made to a law, bill or document, or a formal proposal to make one.
  2. (Amendment) An article added to the constitution of the United States: the First Amendment.
  3. The act of changing something to make it better; correction.

Word family

  • reamendment
  • proamendment
  • amend
  • amends
  • emend
  • emendation
  • mend

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)