attain

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English atteinen, also atteignen and attainen,^[2] borrowed from Old French ataindre (“to come up to, reach, attain”), through its stem ataign-,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} with the Anglo-Norman stem forms atain- and atein-.^[8] The Anglo-Norman verb, recorded from the first quarter of the 12th century, already meant to reach, touch, hit, achieve and overtake.^[9] The French verb comes from Vulgar Latin *attangō,^{[4][5][10][7]} an alteration, influenced by the simple verb, of Latin attingō (“to touch, arrive at, reach”),^[7][4][3] formed from ad- (“to”) and tangō (“to touch”),^[3][4][10] from Proto-Indo-European *tag- (“to touch, handle”).^[4][10] Ayto points out that, unlike contain, maintain and obtain, it is not from teneō (“to hold”), and that it is related to tangible and tangent.^[11] The modern French form is atteindre.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart finds it probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder, in the sense "to reach",^[5][12] and Etymonline dates "succeed in reaching, come so near as to touch" to about 1300.^[4] The OED's first record is from 1330, in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle, with the sense "to convict, condemn", common in Old French.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Latin attingere had a wide range of meanings, from "to attack, strike" to "to appropriate, manage", all coming from "to touch",^[4] and several of them reached Middle English: to convict (1330–1400), to encroach on (before 1382), to touch upon a matter (1447–8) and to strike (1477), all now obsolete.^[3][8] The Oxford Dictionary of English gives "bring to justice" and "reach a state" as the Middle English senses.^[13] The main modern sense, to reach or accomplish an end by effort, is found from 1393, in Gower.^[3] Gower used the verb twenty times and Chaucer twenty-one times, for "attain, achieve" and "come to a place".^[14] Chaucer also used it for "to get to know, find out" (about 1374), and for "to obtain, gain" (about 1405), a sense now archaic.^[3] The sense of overtaking or catching up with someone lasted from 1393 to 1622.^[3][8] Reaching a place is recorded from about 1592, and reaching an age from 1826.^[3] A noun attain, the act of attaining or the thing attained, was used from 1559, but Johnson (1755) already called it "a word not in use".^[3][15]

Timeline

• before 1300 – probably, to reach, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[5]
• 1330 – to convict, condemn (obsolete by 1400).^[3]
• c. 1374 – to get to know, find out (obsolete by 1666), in Chaucer's Boece.^[3]
• before 1382 – to encroach on (obsolete).^[3]
• 1393 – to accomplish or arrive at by effort; to overtake (obsolete by 1622), in Gower.^[3]
• c. 1400 – intransitive, attain to, to come as far as.^[3]
• c. 1405 – to come into possession of, obtain.^[3]
• 1559 – noun, the act of attaining.^[3]
• c. 1592 – to reach a place.^[3]
• 1826 – to reach an age or time.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To achieve or accomplish something by effort: She attained her goal of running a marathon.^[16][7][3]
2. To reach or arrive at a place, an age or a point in time: Few of the climbers attained the summit.^[16][7][3]
3. To come into possession of something, now usually something immaterial; to obtain.^[7][3][8]
4. (intransitive, with to) To arrive at a state or condition after effort: to attain to wisdom.^[16][7][3]
5. (obsolete, 1393–1622) To overtake or catch up with.^[7][3][8]
6. (obsolete, c. 1374–1666) To get to know; to ascertain.^[7][3][8]

Word family

• attainability
• attainable
• attainer
• attainment
• reattain
• unattainable
• unattaining

Related words

• attainder
• attaint
• attainture
• tangent
• tangible
• tact

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins