imprison

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English enprisonen, also emprisonen and imprisonen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French emprisoner, also enprisoner,^[5][4][6] from en- (“in”) and prison,^[5][3][4] now emprisonner.^[5][7] The OED compares Italian imprigionare.^[5] The Old French noun comes from Latin prēnsiō (“a seizing”),^[4][7] from prehendō (“to seize”),^[4][7] which the American Heritage Dictionary refers to Proto-Indo-European *ghend-.^[4] The Old French verb is recorded from the 12th century.^[5][8] The spelling with im-, first found in 1437, follows the Latin prefix in-.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put into prison, to confine: 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle.^[5] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to about 1300,^[3][8] and Dictionary.com to 1250–1300.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its literal sense throughout.^[5] From before 1533, in Lord Berners, it was also used figuratively of anything that shuts something up.^[5] Confining in a more general way is recorded from about 1595.^[5] Johnson (1755) gave "to shut up; to confine; to keep from liberty", and quoted Watts on a man who imprisons himself in his closet.^[9] Merriam-Webster still records the sense of restraining as if in prison, whether by physical means or, for instance, through someone's possessiveness.^[2] The noun imprisonment is recorded from 1386,^[3] and a short-lived noun imprison occurs in Hawes in 1509.^[5]

Timeline

• 1297 – to put into prison.^[5]
• 1386 – the noun emprisonement, imprisonment.^[3]
• 1437 – the spelling with im-.^[3]
• 1509 – noun imprison, imprisonment (now obsolete).^[5]
• before 1533 – figurative, to shut up or confine.^[5]
• c. 1595 – to confine, in a general sense.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put or keep in prison; to incarcerate: The regime imprisoned him for two years without trial.^[10][2][5]
2. To confine or restrain as if in prison: The canyon walls imprison the river for fifty miles.^[10][2][5]

Word family

• imprisonable
• imprisonment
• imprisoner
• reimprison

Related words

• prison
• prisoner

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins