inlay

Etymology

It is formed from English in- + lay,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} with the first element meaning "into" or, as Etymonline has it, the adverb in.^[6][7] The noun comes from the verb.^[2][5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To lay something in a place to hide or preserve it: the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date this to the mid-16th century,^[5][6] though the OED's only example of the sense is from before 1631, in Donne.^[2] The sense of setting one thing into the substance of another appears in the 1590s:^[7] 1596 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[3] and 1598 in the OED, in Florio's Italian dictionary.^[2]

Semantic evolution

By 1600, in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, the verb could mean fitting a thing with another material set into its surface,^[2] and Johnson's examples of the 1755 entry, from Shakespeare, Milton and furniture-making, all have this decorative sense.^[8] Milton used it figuratively in 1670.^[2] From 1810 booksellers used it for setting a page or plate into a larger, stouter leaf.^[2] The noun is first recorded in 1656 for the art of inlaying, in Blount's Glossographia,^[2][3][7] and soon after for inlaid material,^[2][8] with Sir Thomas Browne using it once, in 1658, for the layering of plants.^[2] Later technical uses include an inner sheet in bookbinding (1877), a dental filling (1888) and the turned-in edge of a seam (1899).^[2] The newest recorded senses are a printed insert sold with a CD or video,^[9] and in television the mixing of images electronically.^[10]

Timeline

• mid 16th century – to lay something in a place of concealment.^[5][6] The OED has this sense only from before 1631.^[2]
• 1596 – to set something into a surface, level with it.^[3] The OED dates this sense to 1598.^[2]
• 1600 – to decorate a thing with another material set into its surface.^[2]
• 1656 – noun, the art of inlaying.^[2][3]
• 1667 – noun, inlaid material or work.^[2]
• 1810 – to set a page or plate into a larger leaf.^[2]
• 1877 – an inner sheet in a gathering, in bookbinding.^[2]
• 1888 – a dental filling.^[2]
• 1899 – the turned-in edge of a seam.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To set pieces of another material into a surface, level with it, to form a design: to inlay strips of ebony in a walnut lid.^[3][11][2]
2. To decorate a surface in this way: The cabinetmaker inlaid the box with brass and ivory.^[3][12][11]
3. To set a page, plate or photograph into a space cut in a larger page.^[2][11][10]
4. (medicine) To insert tissue or another substance to repair a defect.^[10]
5. (television) To mix images electronically, using masks.^[10]
6. (obsolete) To lay something in a place to hide or preserve it.^[2][5]

Noun

1. Material set into a surface in pieces, or the design that it forms: a table with a marble inlay.^[3][11][12]
2. (dentistry) A tooth filling of gold, porcelain or the like, shaped beforehand and cemented into the cavity.^[12][3][2]
3. A piece of tissue such as bone laid in to bridge a defect.^[3]
4. An extra allowance in a seam of a garment, for alteration; also a contrasting section set into a garment.^[3][2]
5. A printed insert supplied with a CD or video.^[9]
6. An inner sheet in a gathering, in bookbinding.^[2]
7. (rare) The process or art of inlaying.^[2][5][3]

Word family

• inlayer

Related words

• in
• lay

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
11. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins