enclose

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English enclosen, also inclosen,^[2][3][4] probably from the Middle English participle enclos,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French enclos,^[2][3][5][6] the past participle of enclore (“to surround, confine, contain”).^[2][4][3] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1113–19, with senses including "to surround with a hedge or wall" and "to shut in".^[7] The French verb comes from Vulgar Latin *inclaudō,^[3][6] an alteration, influenced by Latin claudō (“to close”), of inclūdō (“to shut in, include”),^[3] the source of include.^[8][3] Etymonline and Barnhart see in part an English formation from the prefix en- and the verb close, reinforced by the French participle.^[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To shut up in a room or building: about 1325, in the 1989 edition of the OED.^[10] Barnhart's first record is before 1338, in Mannyng's Chronicle,^[9] where the OED also finds the past participle.^[11] The Middle English Dictionary's first sense is to surround a piece of ground, a town or a building with walls or fences,^[2] which the OED dates from probably before 1400.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From shutting someone up the word moved to surrounding things in general (about 1340),^[12] and then to placing something in a frame, a setting or a case (about 1386).^[10] Chaucer used it 17 times and Gower 8 times.^[13] A specific legal sense began about 1500: to fence in waste or common land to cultivate it or to give it to private owners.^[4][10] Johnson (1755) listed this sense first, "to part from things or grounds common by a fence",^[14] and the OED notes that inclose was the legal and statutory form for it.^[10] The meaning familiar from correspondence, to put a document in with a letter, dates from 1707.^[4][10] In religious use the word has come to mean secluding people in a community, as with an enclosed order of nuns.^[5][3] The OED also records short-lived uses for blindfolding the eyes (1475), fastening a door (1563) and harnessing a horse (1615).^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – to shut up in a room or building; to imprison.^[10]
• before 1338 – past participle enclos, in Mannyng's Chronicle.^[11][9]
• 1340 – of things, to surround, envelop or contain.^[12]
• c. 1386 – to put in a frame, setting, case or envelope.^[10]
• probably before 1400 – to surround with walls, fences or other barriers.^[10]
• 1475 – to blindfold the eyes (obsolete).^[10]
• 1503–4 – to fence in waste or common land.^[10][12]
• 1707 – to put a letter or document inside the cover of another.^[10][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To surround or close in on all sides, as with a wall or fence: A low wall encloses the orchard.^[15][3][5]
2. To fence off common or waste land, for cultivation or private ownership.^{[15][3][5][10]}
3. To put in an envelope or wrapper, especially together with a letter: I enclose a copy of the receipt.^[15][5][10]
4. To contain or hold.^[15][5]
5. To hem in or confine.^[15][3][5]
6. To seclude in a religious community, or to subject to the rules of enclosure.^[3][5]

Word family

• enclosable
• encloser

Related words

• enclosure
• inclose
• include
• close
• clause

Usage notes

Inclose is a less common spelling of the verb,^[15] and the OED calls it the legal and statutory form for the inclosing of common and waste lands.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins