ligature

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ligature,^[2][3] borrowed from Late Latin ligātūra (“a band, tie, bond”),^{[4][3][5][6][7]} which the OED calls simply Latin,^[8] formed from ligātus, the past participle of ligō (“to bind, tie”), and -ūra.^[5][6] The American Heritage Dictionary and Barnhart also bring it through Old French ligature, and Merriam-Webster through Middle French;^[3][9][5] the Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the first quarter of the 15th century.^[10] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *leig- (“to tie, bind”),^[3][6] and Merriam-Webster compares Middle Low German līk (“band”), Middle High German geleich (“joint, limb”) and Albanian lith (“I tie”).^[5] Other English words from the same verb include ligament, liable, ally, liaison, lien, oblige, religion and rely.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bandage or tie for a wound: the first records are in the English translation of Lanfranc's Science of Surgery, dated c. 1400 by the OED and before 1400 by the Middle English Dictionary and Barnhart.^[8][2][9] One of them advises to tighten þi ligature at the bottom of the wound.^[2] The same text also uses the word for a ligament.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

The word began in surgery and stayed there, moving from a bandage to the thread that ties up a bleeding artery, and to the act of tying itself, recorded from about 1541.^[8][4] From the 1620s it could be used figuratively for any bond.^[8][4] Johnson (1755) gives three senses, "any thing bound on; bandage", "the act of binding" and "the state of being bound".^[12] The sense in music, a way of marking notes to be sung to one syllable, appears in Morley in 1597,^[8][9] and the sense in writing and printing, two or more letters joined together, in 1693, perhaps from French, where it is recorded in 1680.^[9][8] The verb, from the noun, follows in 1716–20.^[9][8]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – a band, bandage or tie.^[8][2][9]
• c. 1400 – a ligament (now rare).^[8][2][4]
• c. 1541 – in surgery, the action of tying, or the tie so made.^[8]
• 1597 – in music, a way of marking the binding of notes into groups.^[8][9] Etymonline has the 1590s.^[6]
• 1627 – figuratively, a bond or tie.^[8]
• 1651 – more generally, the action of binding up or tying.^[8]
• 1676 – binding quality, or something that has it (obsolete after 1727).^[8]
• 1693 – two or more letters joined together as one character.^[8][9]
• 1716 – verb, to bind with a ligature.^[8][9]
• 1728 – the state of being bound, a suspension of the powers of body or mind (now obsolete).^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Something used to bind; especially, in surgery, a thread or wire for tying off a blood vessel or duct.^[13][5][3]
2. Something that unites; a bond: the ligature of a shared language.^[13][5][3]
3. The act of binding or tying.^[13][5][3]
4. A printed or written character made of two or more joined letters, such as fl or æ; also a stroke joining two letters.^[13][3][8]
5. In music, a slur or the group of notes it connects; in plainsong, a sign for two or more notes grouped together.^[13][3][4]
6. A flexible band that holds the reed on the mouthpiece of a clarinet or similar instrument.^[5][4]
7. (rare) A ligament.^[8][4]
8. (obsolete, 1676–1727) Binding quality.^[8][4]
9. (obsolete) The state of being bound.^[8][12]

Verb

1. To bind or tie up with a ligature; to ligate.^[13][5][8]

Related words

• liaison
• ligate
• ligation
• ligament
• liable
• ally
• lien
• oblige
• religion
• rely

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 f g h i The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins