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Etymology and origin of the English word indent

English has two words spelled indent, one from the French verb for notching and one formed on dent; they have grown together over the centuries.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • /ɪnˈdɛnt/[4]

indent1 to notch, make a toothed edge

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1385 an award between Robert Earl of Fyfe and John of Logy
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman endenter via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *dent-

Etymology

The word for notching is inherited from Middle English endenten, also indenten,[5][6][7] borrowed from Anglo-Norman endenter,[8][9][10][11] which the OED, Etymonline and the Middle English Dictionary give as French or Old French,[3][12][5] and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin indentō (“to furnish with teeth”).[12][13][10] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1121–35, and its uses include cutting documents drawn up in duplicate.[14] The French verb is formed from en- and dent (“tooth”),[11][7] and the OED sets up a Latin type *indentō, from in- and *dentō (“to furnish with teeth”),[3] from Latin dēns (“tooth”),[3][12][15] from Proto-Indo-European *dent- (“tooth”).[12][16] Barnhart instead gives a Late Latin verb meaning "to crunch" as the source of the French.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To sever a document drawn up in duplicate along a toothed or wavy line, so that the two parts tally: 1385, in an award between Robert Earl of Fyfe and John of Logy.[3] The general sense "to notch, make jagged" is first quoted by the OED from about 1430,[3] but the Middle English Dictionary has it about 1400, in a herbal describing leaves as gentellyche endentyd.[5] Barnhart's date of probably before 1400 rests on the Morte Arthure,[6] a record the OED assigns to the verb for denting.[3]

Semantic evolution

The document sense reflects a legal practice: a contract was written out twice on one sheet and cut along a line of notches, and matching the edges later proved it genuine.[1][2][6] From this came "to make a formal agreement" in the 15th century, and "to contract for" around 1600.[3][9] Johnson (1755) still defined the verb first as to mark a thing with inequalities "like a row of teeth".[17] The noun, from the verb,[3][12] meant a notch or deep recess from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 on,[3][6] and an indenture from the late 16th century.[3] Barnhart has that sense from 1451, but Etymonline reports that the Middle English Compendium explains the earlier record as a scribal abbreviation of endenture.[6][12] The printing sense, setting a line back from the margin, is recorded from the 1670s.[12][6][9] The noun for an official requisition, from 1799, was first used of a covenanted servant of the East India Company, and the verb "to make out a written order with a counterfoil", from 1829, began in Anglo-Indian use;[3][15] from 1801 the noun also meant a commercial order for goods, especially one sent to England from abroad.[3]

Timeline

  • 1385 – to sever a document in duplicate along a toothed line.[3]
  • c. 1400 – to notch or give a toothed outline to, of leaves.[5] The OED's first quotation is from about 1430.[3]
  • 1462 – to enter into a formal agreement.[3]
  • 1555 – to form deep recesses in, as a coastline.[3]
  • 1589 – noun, an indenture.[3]
  • 1598 – noun, a notch or deep recess, in Shakespeare.[3] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it to 1596.[6][7]
  • 1600 – to contract for or promise by indenture (obsolete by 1632).[3]
  • 1676 – to set a line back from the margin.[6][12]
  • 1758 – to engage a person by indenture (obsolete by 1804).[3][9]
  • 1788 – noun, a certificate for a money claim, especially one issued in the United States after the War of Independence.[3]
  • 1799 – noun, an official requisition for stores.[3]
  • 1801 – noun, an order for goods.[3]
  • 1829 – to make out a written order with a counterfoil, originally in Anglo-Indian use.[3]
  • 1884 – noun, the blank space at the start of a paragraph.[3]
  • 1897 – to order a supply of a commodity.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To set a line of text in from the margin, as at the start of a paragraph: Please indent every quotation in the essay.[16][18]
  2. To notch an edge or give it a jagged outline.[16][18][3]
  3. To form deep recesses in: Narrow fjords indent the northern shore.[19][3]
  4. (chiefly British) To place an order for goods, or to make a requisition for supplies.[18][20]
  5. (historical) To cut a document drawn up in duplicate along an irregular line, so that the copies can be matched to prove them authentic.[20][18][7]
  6. To draw up a document in two or more copies.[16][7]
  7. (obsolete, 1487–1759) To bind oneself by contract; to make a covenant.[3][21]

Noun

  1. The blank space set in at the start of a line or paragraph.[3][8]
  2. A notch in an edge, or a deep angular recess.[3][8]
  3. (chiefly British) An official requisition for supplies.[7][3]
  4. (chiefly British) An order for goods, especially from abroad.[7][3]
  5. An indenture.[7][3]
  6. (historical) A certificate for a sum owed, issued by the United States at the end of the American Revolution.[7][3]

Word family

  • indentation
  • indenter
  • indention

indent2 to dent, make a depression

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1400 before 1400, Morte Arthure
Ultimate origin
Middle English en-,denten

Etymology

The word for making a dent is formed from Middle English en- + denten (“to dent”),[7] as Middle English endenten; the OED and the Shorter Oxford analyse it as in- and dent,[3][8][13] and Etymonline takes the first part as the adverb in.[12] The Middle English Dictionary keeps it under one headword with the notching verb.[5] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate derives the simple verb the other way, as short for this one.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To inlay, set or emboss: before 1400, in the Morte Arthure, where a diadem is set with diamonds.[3][5] Etymonline dates "to dent or press in" to about 1400.[12]

Semantic evolution

The "inlay" sense, shared with dent as a verb, lasted until 1730.[3] The sense of forcing inward to make a hollow is first quoted about 1460, in the Tale of Beryn,[3] though the Middle English Dictionary reads the same line, endenting euery pase, figuratively as "to heckle".[5] "To mark a surface with dents" follows about 1595, and "to take a dent" before 1652.[3] The Shorter Oxford quotes Dryden's scars indented on his Breast.[8]

Timeline

  • before 1400 – to inlay, set or emboss (obsolete by 1730).[3]
  • c. 1460 – to strike or force inward so as to form a hollow.[3]
  • c. 1595 – to make dents in a surface.[3]
  • before 1652 – intransitive, to take a dent or become furrowed.[3]
  • 1690 – noun, a dent or depression in a surface.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To force something inward by striking or pressing, so as to make a hollow.[7][3]
  2. To make a dent in a surface: His elbow indented the soft cushion.[7][3]
  3. To take a dent; to become hollowed or furrowed.[7][3][8]
  4. (obsolete, before 1400–1730) To inlay, set or emboss.[3][8]

Noun

  1. A dent or depression in a surface.[3][7][8]

Usage notes

The OED notes that speakers have probably always treated the two verbs as uses of one word, since they differ less than some senses of the notching verb do.[3] The derivatives indentation and indenture take their form from the French verb but have senses from both.[3] The verb is /ɪnˈdɛnt/; the noun for a notch or order is /ˈɪndɛnt/ or /ɪnˈdɛnt/, and the noun for a dent is /ˈɪndɛnt/.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  2. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g 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)
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  13. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  18. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  19. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  20. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  21. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Indent.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/indent. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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