Etymologically
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ligament

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈlɪɡəmənt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ligament, also ligamen,[2] borrowed from Medieval Latin ligāmentum (“ligament of the body”), from Latin ligāmentum (“band, tie, bandage”),[3][4][5][6][7] formed from ligō (“to bind, tie”) and the suffix -mentum,[6][3][8] from Proto-Indo-European *leig- (“to tie, bind”).[9] Skeat and Weekley allowed for a route through French ligament.[10][11] Barnhart and Klein compare Middle Low German lîk (“band”) and Middle High German geleich (“joint, limb”).[12][13] The Latin verb is also the source of ligature, liable, league, lien, oblige and rely.[13][14][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A band of tough tissue that binds the bones together: 1392 in Barnhart,[6][12] about 1400 in the OED and the MED, in the English translation of Lanfranc's surgery.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The anatomical sense came first in English, from Medieval Latin, where ligāmentum already meant a ligament of the body.[3][5] The general Latin sense, anything used to bind or tie, appears from 1426, in Lydgate, as a bond of union,[5] and appears literally from 1599, as a bandage or ligature in surgery; the literal sense is now obsolete, and the figurative one archaic.[5][15] Johnson (1755) described a ligament as a white, solid body, softer than cartilage and harder than a membrane, whose chief use is to fasten the joints.[16] In zoology the word was extended to similar parts in lower animals (1797) and to the elastic substance that holds the two valves of a bivalve shell together (1816).[5]

Timeline

  • 1392 – a band of tissue binding bones.[6][12]
  • 1426 – figurative, a tie or bond of union.[5]
  • 1599 – a band or tie; in surgery, a bandage (obsolete).[5]
  • 1797 – a similar part in lower animals.[5]
  • 1816 – the elastic hinge of a bivalve shell.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A short, tough band of fibrous connective tissue that joins bones or cartilages at a joint, or holds an organ in place: She tore a ligament in her knee playing football.[17][3][5]
  2. The elastic hinge that holds together the two valves of a bivalve shell.[5][3]
  3. Any connection or bond, physical or abstract.[17][15]

Word family

  • ligamental
  • ligamentous
  • cruciate ligament
  • suspensory ligament

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  13. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  15. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins