lintel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lintel, also lyntel,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French lintel (“threshold”),^[4][5][6] now French linteau.^[4][5] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the first quarter of the 12th century, with the spellings lental, linthel and lyntel,^[7] while Etymonline dates the Old French one to the 13th century.^[5] Its origin is uncertain.^[6][5] Most dictionaries take it as an alteration of lintier, from Vulgar Latin *līmitāris (“threshold”),^{[8][6][9][10][11]} from the Latin adjective līmitāris (“on the border”),^{[8][6][5][12]} from līmes (“boundary”),^{[8][6][5][12]} with its meaning influenced by līmen (“threshold”).^{[8][6][5][12]} Ayto describes this as a blend of the two Latin nouns, starting from līmināris (“of a threshold”), altered under the influence of līmes.^[11] The OED instead proposes a popular Latin *līmitāle or *līmitellum,^[4] and Weekley has *līmitellus;^[13] Barnhart calls this the traditional etymology.^[6] The Oxford Dictionary of English bases the word on late Latin līmināre.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The horizontal piece above a door or window: lyntell in 1315, in a record quoted in Salzman's Building in England.^[2][6] The OED, in an entry not fully revised, begins with the later version of the Wycliffite Bible, from before 1425.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word changed its place in the doorway: in Old French it meant the threshold, the piece at the bottom,^[5][4][6] while in English it has meant the piece at the top.^[2][4] Barnhart points to the Wycliffite Bible for an explanation of the confusion: in Exodus 12:22 the first version has ouerthreswold where the later version has lyntel.^[6][2] He adds that a similar confusion about the word threshold persisted, rarely, until at least 1834.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as the part of a door frame lying across the posts overhead, and quoted the same chapter of Exodus.^[15] A single use in Levens's dictionary of 1570 seems to mean the spoke of a wheel.^[4]

Timeline

• 1315 – lyntell, a piece over an opening.^[2][6]
• 1359–60 – the plural linteles, in the sacrist's rolls of Ely.^[2]
• 1570 – perhaps a spoke of a wheel (rare, obsolete).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A horizontal beam of timber, stone, metal or concrete across the top of a door, window or other opening, usually carrying the weight above it.^[12][16][17]

Related words

• limit
• limen
• subliminal

Usage notes

Dictionary.com gives lintol as a British spelling.^[3] In Yorkshire and Northamptonshire dialect lintel was also the name of a kind of tare or vetch, probably the hairy vetch.^[18]

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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)