loin

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English loyne, also loine,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French loigne (“hip, haunch, loin”),^[5][6][7][8] an eastern dialect form of longe, now French longe (“loin of veal”),^{[9][10][11][12]} also the source of Spanish lonja (“piece of ham”).^[5] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1150–70, both for the side of the body and for a loin of meat.^[8] It comes from Vulgar Latin *lumbea, the feminine of *lumbeus (“of the loin”),^[5][7][9][3] short for *lumbea carō (“meat of the loin”),^[6][4][7] from Latin lumbus (“loin”),^{[5][6][7][10]} the source of lumbar and lumbago.^[10][4] Etymonline and Barnhart trace the Latin word to Proto-Indo-European *lendh- (“loin”),^[6][4] and Etymonline and Ayto think it was perhaps borrowed from Germanic.^[6][10] It is cognate with the native English word, Old English lendenu (“loins”), Middle English lende, which the French loan replaced,^[4][6][9] and the plural lendes was obsolete before 1550.^[4] Other Germanic cognates, from Proto-Germanic *landwīn-, are Old High German lenti, German Lende (“loin”), Old Saxon lendin, Middle Dutch lendine, Dutch lende and Old Norse lend,^[4][6][9][3] and outside Germanic there is an Old Church Slavonic word for the loins.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A loin of an animal used for food: about 1340, in a political song;^[5] Etymonline also dates this sense to the early 14th century,^[6] and Barnhart dates loyne to before 1325.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense of the human body, the part on either side of the backbone between the ribs and the hips, is recorded from 1398, when John Trevisa explained that the loynes are called lumbi in Latin.^[5][2][6] The English Bible made the plural loins a familiar word: from Tyndale's version of 1526 it is the part of the body around which clothes are bound, as in to gird (up) one's loins, to prepare for effort,^[5][6][4] and in Coverdale's of 1535 they are the seat of strength and of the power to beget children, so that it could stand for a father or for descendants.^[5][6] Johnson (1755) quoted Shakespeare for both uses: "Blanket my loins" in King Lear and "Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins" in Richard III;^[13] Johnson himself derived the word from Welsh.^[13] Barnhart traces the phrase about girding the loins to Proverbs 31:17, where binding the loincloth symbolized readiness.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1340 – a loin of meat.^[5][6] Barnhart dates the word to before 1325.^[4]
• 1398 – the part of the body on each side of the spine between the ribs and the hips.^[5][2]
• 1526 – the loins as the part around which clothes are bound, as in gird up the loins, in Tyndale's Bible.^[5] Etymonline dates this use to the 1520s.^[6]
• 1535 – the loins as the seat of strength and of procreative power, in Coverdale's Bible.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The part of the body of a person or a four-footed animal on each side of the spine, between the lowest ribs and the hip; usually in the plural.^[3][14][5]
2. A cut of meat from this part of an animal: a roast loin of lamb.^[3][14][5]
3. loins: this part of the body regarded as the seat of strength and of the power to beget children.^[5][6]
4. gird (up) one's loins: to get ready for a hard task.^[5][4]

Word family

• loincloth
• sirloin
• tenderloin
• short loin

Related words

• lumbago
• lumbar
• umbles

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ 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.
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins