endanger

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English endaungeren, also indaungeren,^[2][3] formed from Middle English en- + daunger (“power, jurisdiction”).^{[3][4][5][6][7]} The noun, now danger, then still meant the power of a lord or master;^[3][5] it came from Anglo-Norman daunger, from Old French dangier (“power, mastery, authority”), from Vulgar Latin *dominārium (“power of a lord”), from Latin dominus (“lord, master”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To expose a person to an infringement of his rights, to make him liable to seizure of his property: 1440, indawngeryd in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[2] Barnhart dates the word to 1418, in the sense to incur debt or mortgage, in the Proceedings of the Privy Council,^[7] and the OED's first record, of being liable to arrest or seizure of goods by a creditor, is in the Paston Letters of 1477.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The early senses come from the old meaning of danger, the power or jurisdiction of another:^[3][5] to be endangered to a creditor or judge was to be at his mercy; from 1551 to 1579 the verb also meant to put a person under the absolute control of another.^[4][2] As danger itself came to mean peril, the verb followed: from 1509 it meant to expose to danger, which the OED calls the only modern sense,^[4] and Barnhart dates "to put in peril" to 1548.^[7] Several other senses of the 16th to 18th centuries, such as "to risk" and "to make something bad likely", are now obsolete.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to put into hazard; to bring into peril".^[8] The adjective endangered is recorded from 1609, and of animals and plants in danger of dying out from 1901;^[4] Etymonline dates endangered species to 1958.^[5]

Timeline

• 1418 – to incur debt, mortgage, according to Barnhart.^[7]
• 1440 – to make a person liable to seizure of his property.^[2]
• 1477 – passive, to be liable to arrest or seizure of goods by a creditor (obsolete by 1599).^[4]
• 1509 – to expose to danger, the modern sense.^[4]
• 1551 – to put a person under the absolute control of another (obsolete by 1579).^[4]
• 1612 – to make something bad likely to happen (obsolete by 1797).^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put in danger; to threaten with harm or loss: The new road could endanger the nesting birds.^[9][3][4]
2. (intransitive) To create a dangerous situation.^[3]
3. (obsolete, 1551–1579) To put a person under the absolute power of another, or make an official liable to dismissal or punishment.^[4][3][6]

Word family

• endangerment

Related words

• danger
• endangered
• dominion
• dungeon

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins