collateral

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English collateral,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French collateral,^[4][5][6] and directly Medieval Latin collaterālis (“accompanying, concomitant; literally, side by side”),^[7][4][8][9] which the Middle English Dictionary gives as a source beside the French.^[2] The Medieval Latin adjective is formed from Latin com- (“with, together”), in its form col- before l, and laterālis (“of the side”),^[4][5][10] from latus (“side”),^[5][11][7] a word of uncertain origin.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lying aside from the main matter; subordinate or indirect: about 1374, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde,^[7][12][13] and accompanying or attendant in 1377, in Langland's Piers Plowman,^[7] which Barnhart dates about 1378.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The idea of being "at the side" gave the word several branches in Middle English: accompanying or concomitant, subordinate, lying alongside, and in law, of a security added to the main one.^[2][7] In genealogy, from about 1425, it meant descended from the same ancestor but in a different line, as opposed to lineal.^[7][5] The literal sense, placed side by side or parallel, is recorded from the 15th century,^[5][7] and in later centuries it was used of arteries and blood circulation (1788) and in botany (1857).^[7] Johnson (1755) gave "side to side", "running parallel", "diffused on either side" and further senses.^[14] The noun meant a colleague or associate in the 16th century.^[4][5] Its main modern sense, property pledged as security for a loan, arose in American English in 1832 from the phrase collateral security (1720), in which the adjective meant supporting in a secondary way.^[5][4][9] Collateral damage is found in legal cases by 1873, and since about 1968 in American military use as a euphemism for the killing of civilians, at first in connection with nuclear weapons.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – lying aside from the main subject; subordinate.^[7]
• 1377 – accompanying, attendant.^[7]
• 1398 – collateral winds, winds from between the cardinal points (obsolete by 1728).^[7]
• c. 1425 – descended from the same stock in a different line.^[7]
• 16th century – noun, a colleague or associate.^[4][5]
• 1720 – collateral security.^[5][4]
• 1832 – noun, property pledged as security (American English).^[5][4]
• 1873 – collateral damage, in legal cases.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Accompanying something as a secondary matter; additional but subordinate, or indirect: The ruling had collateral effects on other contracts.^[6][10][7]
2. Serving to support or corroborate: collateral evidence.^[10][6]
3. Descended from the same ancestor but through a different line, as cousins are; opposed to lineal.^[10][7]
4. Situated or running side by side; parallel.^[10][7]
5. Of or secured by property pledged for a loan: a collateral loan.^[10][5]
6. (anatomy) Of a branch of a blood vessel or nerve, or of circulation through such branches.^[7][6]

Noun

1. Property or other assets pledged as security for the repayment of a loan.^[10][6][9]
2. A relative descended from the same ancestor through a different line.^[10][6]
3. (anatomy) A side branch, especially of a blood vessel, nerve or axon.^[6]
4. (chiefly New England) Personal belongings; odds and ends.^[6]

Word family

• collaterally
• collaterality
• collateralize
• collateral damage

Related words

• lateral
• bilateral
• unilateral

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.