lien

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French lien (“band, tie, bond”),^[2][3][4][5] from Old French loien,^[6][7][8] from Latin ligāmen (“bond, tie”),^[4][5][9][2] from ligō (“to bind, tie”),^[4][5][9] from Proto-Indo-European *leig- (“to tie, bind”).^[5][9] Middle English already had līen (“a bond, fetter; moral restraint”), from liien and loiien,^[10][5] and the Anglo-Norman word, recorded from the early 12th century, meant a tie or fetter, a bond, and also an obligation.^[11] The Latin noun is also the source of ligament.^[2][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

In law, a right to keep possession of property until a debt owed on it is paid: 1530, in the second dialogue of St German's Doctor and Student.^[4] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it to 1531.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word kept the literal French meaning, a bond or fetter, and figuratively a moral restraint, as in Gower before 1393, where it is a means of keeping anger in check.^[10][13][5] The modern word, borrowed again in the 16th century, was from the start a legal term for a claim on another's property as security for a debt.^[4][2][5] An anatomical sense, a tendon, appears once in a surgical text of about 1541 and is obsolete.^[4] From 1870 the word was used attributively, as in lien bond and lien holder.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1393 – Middle English lien, a bond; a moral restraint, in Gower.^[10][13]
• 1530 – in law, a right to keep another's property until a debt is paid.^[4]
• c. 1541 – in anatomy, a tendon (obsolete).^[4]
• 1870 – attributive, as in lien holder.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) A right to keep possession of, or to have a claim on, another person's property until a debt or other obligation is paid: The bank holds a lien on the house until the loan is repaid.^{[14][3][4][6]}

Word family

• lienable
• lienholder
• mechanic's lien

Related words

• ligament
• ligature
• liable
• ally
• league
• rely

Usage notes

The OED gives /ˈliːən/ as the usual pronunciation in England and notes, after Funk's Standard Dictionary, that /liːn/ was usual in the United States.^[4] The spelling lien was also used for the old past participle of lie, to recline, as in the Bible,^[15][16] and, rarely, for a Latin word for the spleen (1651).^[4][3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c 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)
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.