assign

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English assignen, also asinen and asseinen,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French assigner, also asiner and assener,^[4][5][6][2] from Latin assignō (“to mark out, allot, assign”), also adsignō,^[7][4][3][8] formed from ad- (“to”) and signō (“to mark, make a sign”),^[4][7][8] from signum (“mark, sign”).^[4][7][8] Barnhart takes the Old French verb as a learned borrowing from Latin and the English word as coming through Anglo-French;^[9] the Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1160–74, for allocating, transferring property, appointing and fixing a day.^[10] The AHD refers signum to the root Proto-Indo-European *sekw-.^[8] The legal noun assign is the Middle English assigne, of three syllables, from Middle French assigné, the past participle of assigner used as a noun; it split into assign and assignee, the first losing its final -e in the 15th century.^[4][11][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To transfer or formally make over property to another: 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, which also has the sense "to appoint a person to an office or duty".^[4] Etymonline and Barnhart date the verb to about 1300, and Etymonline notes that its original use was in legal transfers of personal property.^[7][9]

Semantic evolution

Already in Middle English the verb covered most of its modern range: fixing a time (about 1305), allotting a share or portion (1340), allotting persons to serve someone (1340), and allotting a place or setting it apart for a purpose (1393, in Gower).^[4] Gower used it ten times, Chaucer once.^[12] Some senses died out: to prescribe a course of action (about 1485–1607), to send a person to a place (1413–1611), and to make an appointment with someone (Malory).^[4] From 1664 it also meant to determine or lay down something as ascertained,^[4] and in early 19th-century New South Wales it was used of making over a convict as an unpaid servant (1827).^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "to mark out; to appoint".^[13] The noun assign, a person to whom property or a right is transferred, is recorded from about 1450 and survives mainly in heirs and assigns.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1297 – to transfer property to another; to appoint a person to an office.^[4]
• c. 1305 – to fix a time.^[4]
• 1340 – to allot as a share.^[4]
• 1393 – to allot a place, set it apart for a purpose.^[4]
• c. 1450 – noun, a person to whom property is transferred.^[4]
• 1664 – to determine as ascertained.^[4]
• 1755 – Johnson: to mark out, to appoint.^[13]
• 1827 – to make over a convict as an unpaid servant.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give out or allot a task, share or place to someone: The teacher assigned each pupil a poem.^[14][4][3]
2. To appoint a person to a post or duty: She was assigned to the night shift.^[14][3][4]
3. To set apart or fix a time, place, etc. for a purpose.^[14][4]
4. To attribute or ascribe something to a cause, origin or source.^[14]
5. (law) To transfer one's right, title or interest in property to another.^[14][3][4]

Noun

1. (law) A person to whom property or a right is transferred; an assignee, as in heirs and assigns.^{[4][3][5][11]}

Word family

• assignability
• assignable
• assignably
• assigner
• nonassigned
• preassigned
• unassigned
• assignor

Related words

• sign
• assignee
• assignment
• assignation
• assignat

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 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 p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ 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.
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins