bind

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English binden, inherited from Old English bindan (“to tie up, fetter”),^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Proto-Germanic *bindaną,^[3][6][7] a strong verb of Indo-European origin.^[6] Its cognates are Old Saxon bindan, Old Frisian binda, Old Norse binda, Old High German bintan, German binden and Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌽 (bindan).^[3][4][5][6] The Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to bind”) also gave Sanskrit बध्नाति (badhnā́ti, “binds”) and Ancient Greek πεῖσμα (peîsma, “cable, rope”),^[4][8][9][7] and in English band, bend, bond and bundle.^[10][11] The vowel was short in Old and Middle English, as in the cognates, and was later lengthened before the following consonants.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To tie up with bonds, literally and figuratively, to make captive, and to bandage: Old English, in the Blickling Homilies and the West Saxon Gospels,^[5][3] about 725 in Barnhart, in a translation of Exodus.^[4] The Old English verb also had the spiritual sense of binding and loosing in Matthew 16:19.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Figurative binding by sickness, sin, love or a spell is recorded from about 1200,^[5] and the sense of making a bargain or contract fast from a1300,^[5] from which comes the legal sense, to put someone under an obligation.^[12][8] Binding books is recorded from about 1400.^[3] Johnson (1755) gave the medical sense, to make costive, which the OED dates from 1597,^[13][5] and the intransitive sense, to stick together, dates from the 1670s.^[3] The noun, anything that binds, is late Old English,^[3][5] and since about 1400 it has also named the climbing stem of the hop, later spelled bine.^[5][10] An awkward or tight situation, as in the phrase be in a bind, is recorded from 1851;^[3] Barnhart notes that the noun survived beside band only in such special uses.^[4] In RAF slang from about 1920 the verb meant to bore, and the noun a bore or nuisance.^[14][15] In dialect bind was to tie the bands round sheaves at harvest, and the noun was a twisted band of hay or a withy.^[16]

Timeline

• c725 – bindan, to tie up.^[4]
• Old English – noun, a band or tie.^[5]
• c1200 – figurative, of sin or a spell.^[5]
• a1300 – to make a bargain fast.^[5]
• c1400 – to bind books.^[3]
• c1400 – the stem of the hop.^[5]
• 1597 – to make costive.^[5]
• 1670s – to stick together.^[3]
• 1851 – noun, a tight situation.^[3]
• 1922 – (RAF slang) to bore.^[14]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To tie or fasten someone or something tightly, as with rope: They bound the prisoner's hands.
2. To wrap or encircle with a band or bandage: The nurse bound up the wound.
3. To put under a legal or moral obligation: The treaty binds both states.
4. To fasten the pages of a book together and put them in a cover.
5. To hold together or cause to cohere: Egg binds the mixture.
6. (British slang) To bore; also, to complain at length.

Noun

1. (informal) A difficult or awkward situation: We are in a bit of a bind.
2. (British informal) A nuisance or bore.
3. (music) A tie joining two notes of the same pitch.
4. The climbing stem of the hop; a bine.

Word family

• bindable
• bindery
• misbind
• rebind
• spellbind
• binder
• hidebound
• unbind

Related words

• band
• bend
• bond
• bundle
• bine
• bound

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ 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 Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ 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)