engage

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɪnˈɡeɪdʒ/, US /enˈɡeɪdʒ/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English engagen, borrowed from Middle French engagier,^[2][3] from Old French engagier “to bind by promise, pledge, pawn”,^[4][3] from the phrase en gage “under pledge”,^[4][2] from en- and gage (“pledge”) (see gage),^[4][2][5] which came through Frankish from Proto-Germanic *wadiare (“pledge”) (see wed).^[4] The Germanic w- became g- in central French, as in guard and ward.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pledge something as security: 1430 in Barnhart, in the Proceedings of the Privy Council; the OED's first quotation is 1525.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

From pledging property the word came to mean pledging one's life or honour (1568), binding a person by contract (1603) and involving someone (before 1586).^[6][2] To attract and hold the attention is from 1642, the 1640s in Etymonline;^[2][4] to employ or secure for use is from 1648 (1753 in the OED for hiring servants),^[2][6] and to enter into combat with from the 1640s.^[4] The promise to marry is implied in engaged from 1615 and is used of the verb from 1727, in Fielding.^[2][6] The meshing of machine parts is from 1884.^[4] Engagement is from 1624, and as a promise of marriage from 1742 in the plural and 1859 in the singular, in Dickens's letters.^[2] The French past participle engagé, politically committed, is from 1946.^[3][6]

Timeline

• 1430 – to pledge.^[2]
• 1603 – to bind by contract.^[6]
• 1615 – engaged, betrothed.^[2]
• 1640s – to attract; to fight.^[4]
• 1648 – to employ.^[2]
• 1727 – to betroth.^[6]
• 1884 – of machine parts, to mesh.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To attract and hold someone's interest or attention.
2. (engage in) To take part or become involved in something.
3. To employ someone, or arrange to use something.
4. To begin fighting an enemy.
5. Of parts of a machine, to fit together or mesh.
6. (formal) To promise or undertake to do something.

Word family

• engager
• disengage
• disengagement
• engagement
• preengage

Related words

• gage
• wage
• wed

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press