amity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English amite, also amiste,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman amistee,^[4] with Middle French amité and amisté,^[4][3] variants of French amitié, recorded in the 11th century in Old French as amistet.^[4] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded from the first third of the 12th century, ranged from friendship and alliance to love, charity and a friendly act.^[5] Its source is Vulgar Latin *amīcitās,^{[6][7][8][9][10]} unattested according to the OED, which calls it post-classical;^[4] Merriam-Webster and Collins call it Medieval Latin.^[3][11] It is an alteration of Latin amīcitia (“friendship”),^[4][6][12] from amīcus (“friend, friendly”).^[4][8][10] The same form gave Spanish amistad.^[6] The Latin word for a friend is related to amō (“to love”),^[10][3][7] itself of uncertain origin.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Friendly relations of a public kind: 1437, in the Rolls of Parliament,^[4] where the Middle English Dictionary reads of the special Amiste as the merchants bound to the king by such an understanding.^[2] Barnhart cites the same rolls for 1450, as amyte,^[7] Etymonline the mid-15th century,^[6] and Dictionary.com 1400–50.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The first records are diplomatic: the Middle English Dictionary gives peaceful relations between rulers or states, a treaty of friendship, and the peoples joined by such an agreement, such as the members of the Hanseatic League.^[2] Personal uses followed in the 16th century, with the plural for expressions of friendship or pleasantries in Berners's Froissart (1525) and a single friendship in Painter's Palace of Pleasure (1566).^[4] Johnson (1755) defines it as friendship "whether publick between nations, opposed to war, or among the people, opposed to discord, or between private persons".^[14] Merriam-Webster Unabridged stresses goodwill and tolerance between parties with potentially opposed aims.^[3]

Timeline

• 1437 – friendship, friendly relations, especially of a public kind.^[4][15][2] Barnhart dates amyte to 1450.^[7]
• 1469 – a treaty of friendship, an agreement.^[2]
• 1525 – in the plural, expressions of friendship.^[4]
• 1566 – a friendly relationship, a friendship.^[4][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. Friendship and goodwill, especially between parties who might be at odds: The two rival shopkeepers lived for years in careful amity.^[11][3][4]
2. Friendly relations between nations or other large groups.^{[3][4][16][14]}
3. (rare) A single friendly relationship.^[4]
4. (rare) In the plural, expressions of friendship or pleasantries.^[4][16]

Related words

• amiable
• amicable
• amorous
• amateur
• enmity

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press