mend

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English menden,^[2][3][4] a clipping from Middle English amenden (“to amend”),^{[3][2][5][6][7]} the source of amend, or of its own source, Old French amender (“to correct, set right, improve”), since the short form is recorded slightly earlier than the long one.^{[8][9][10][11]} The Anglo-Norman mender is recorded from about 1300.^[8][12] The Old French verb goes back to Vulgar Latin *admendō (“to remove faults, correct”), an alteration of ēmendō (“to free from faults, correct”), the source of emend,^[10] formed from ex- (“out, away”) and mendum (“fault, blemish”), also menda,^[10][9] from Proto-Indo-European *mend- (“physical defect, fault”).^[9] Ayto adds that mendīcus (“beggar”), the source of mendicant, and perhaps mendāx (“lying”), the source of mendacious, come from the same Latin noun.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To restore something broken, worn or torn to good condition, to repair: before 1200, in a homily.^[8] Barnhart dates this sense probably before 1200,^[13][5] and Etymonline about 1200, of clothes, tools and buildings.^[9] Hoad gives the order differently, with "to free from fault" in the 12th century and "to repair" only in the 14th.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Most of the senses of amend were shared by the short form: making amends for a wrong (about 1330), putting right a fault or evil (before 1375) and reforming a person morally (before 1382),^[8] which Weekley takes as the original sense.^[15] The atoning sense survives only in the proverb least said, soonest mended,^[8][15] and the moral one in mend one's ways and mend one's manners.^[8][2] Old oaths such as the devil mend him (from about 1380) live on in Scottish and Irish English.^[8] The intransitive sense, to grow better or recover, dates from the late 14th century,^[9] and Scots and northern English used mend for adding fuel to a fire from about 1505.^[8][16] In the long run mend took over the senses "repair" and "cure" from amend.^[9] The noun began in the 14th century as "recompense, reparation", a shortening of amends;^[8][9][5] the plural mends is still Scottish for amends.^[8][2] On the mend, recovering, is recorded from 1802, in Coleridge, and the noun for a repair or a mended place in cloth from 1888.^[8][9]

Timeline

• before 1200 – to repair something broken or worn.^[8][5]
• c. 1330 – to make amends for, atone for.^[8]
• c. 1350 – noun, recompense, reparation.^[8]
• before 1375 – to put right, remedy a fault.^[8]
• before 1382 – to reform a person morally.^[8]
• late 14th century – intransitive, to grow better, improve.^[9]
• before 1505 – to add fuel to a fire.^[8]
• 1802 – on the mend, recovering.^[8][9]
• 1888 – noun, a repair, a mended place in fabric.^[8][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To repair something broken, torn or worn: She mended the torn sleeve before the interview.^[16][2][8]
2. To improve or reform, especially in mend one's ways or mend one's manners.^[16][2][8]
3. To put right or correct a fault or error.^[2][8]
4. (intransitive) To heal or recover.^[16]
5. (intransitive) Of conditions, to improve, get better.^[16][9]
6. (Northern English) To add fuel to or stir a fire.^[16][8]

Noun

1. The act of repairing, or a place that has been mended.^[16][2][8]
2. on the mend: recovering from illness, or improving.^[16][8][9]
3. (chiefly Scottish) mends: amends, compensation.^[2][8]

Word family

• mendable
• mender
• remend

Related words

• amend
• amends
• emend
• mendicant
• mendacious

Usage notes

Dictionary.com compares mend with darn and patch: mend is the general word for making whole something damaged, darn means repairing a hole with interwoven stitches, and patch means covering a hole with a piece of material, a more makeshift repair.^[4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon 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 x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
14. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins