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lien

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Pronunciation

  • /liːn/, /ˈliːən/[1]

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as security for a debt.[4][2][5] An anatomical sense, a tendon, appears once in a surgical text of about 1541 and is obsolete.[4] From 1870 the word was used attributively, as in lien bond and lien holder.[4]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

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.