Etymologically
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mend

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Pronunciation

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

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