constrain

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English constreinen, also constrainen,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French constreindre, also constraindre, through the stem constreign-,^[4][5][2] now contraindre,^[4][6] from Latin cōnstringō (“to bind together, tie tightly”),^[4][6][7] formed from com- (“together”) and stringō (“to draw tight”),^[4][6][7] from Proto-Indo-European *streig-.^[7] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the first third of the 12th century.^[8] The Latin verb also gave Italian costringere, Spanish constreñir and Portuguese constranger.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To force or compel: the OED's first record is in R. Rolle's Psalter of before 1340, with a simple object.^[4] Barnhart dates constreynen to probably before 1325,^[5] the Dictionary.com text gives the range 1275–1325,^[9] and Etymonline says the early 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb was physical, to tie tightly; the Anglo-Norman verb already had the senses to bind, to compel, to hinder, and to limit.^[8] English took it first of force on a person: Chaucer uses it 48 times, as in "My peple me constreyneth for to take Another wyf".^[10][2] Forced confinement followed in late Middle English, and the figurative sense of keeping within limits appeared in the early 17th century.^[11] Johnson (1755) still lists first the sense to compel, then to hinder, to necessitate, to ravish and to confine.^[12] The participle constrained came to mean forced or unnatural in manner,^[11][13] and in 1834 Whewell applied the verb to dynamics, restricting a body's motion to a set course.^[4] The sense of limiting has lately moved to the front: the AHD's 4th edition lists "compel" first, its 5th edition "limit".^[14][7]

Timeline

• before 1340 – to force or compel, with a simple object, in Rolle's Psalter.^[4]
• c. 1386 – to compel a person to do something, in Chaucer.^[4]
• c. 1400 – to force or assume by straining, of behaviour or feeling (obsolete after 1725).^[4]
• c. 1583 – to bring about by compulsion.^[4] The Shorter Oxford dates this to the early 17th century.^[11]
• 1594 – to violate, in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.^[4]
• early 17th century – figuratively, to limit, to keep within bounds.^[11]
• 1834 – dynamics: to restrict the motion of a body to a certain course, in Whewell.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To keep within limits; to restrict or confine: A small budget constrained the size of the project.^[7][13][15]
2. To hold back or inhibit.^[7][14]
3. To compel or force, especially by circumstances or necessity.^[15][16][7]
4. (mechanics) To restrict the motion of a body to a particular path or surface.^[4][16][11]
5. (literary) To imprison.^[13][11]
6. (archaic) To bring about by compulsion.^[13][4][16]
7. (obsolete, 1400–1725) To force out or produce by straining.^[4][11]
8. (obsolete, 1594–1700) To take by force; to ravish.^[4][11][12]

Word family

• constrainable
• constrainer
• constrainedly
• constrainingly
• unconstraining

Related words

• constraint
• constrict
• restrain
• strain
• stringent
• distrain
• constringe

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. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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.
13. ^ a b c d Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster