Etymologically
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restrain

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Pronunciation

  • /ɹɪˈstɹeɪn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English restreinen, also spelled restrainen and restreignen,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman restreindre, also restraindre, from the stem of these verbs.[4][5][2] Etymonline, the Shorter Oxford and Klein give the French verb as Old French,[6][7][8] Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com as Middle French;[9][10] it survives as restreindre.[4][8] The French verb is from Latin restringō (“to draw back tightly, bind fast, confine, check”),[4][6][3][5] formed from re- (“back”) and stringō (“to draw tight, bind”),[11][8][12] the verb behind strain and stringent.[9][12][8] The same Latin verb later gave English restrict directly,[13][14] and the OED compares ristringere, restriñir and restringir.[4] The noun restraint is restrainte, the feminine past participle of the French verb used as a noun.[3][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To restrict, limit or confine: before 1325, in the Statutes of the Realm.[4] Barnhart's first record is before 1349, in the sense "hold back, keep in check, stop",[3] and Etymonline dates the word to the mid-14th century, of curbing a vice, purpose, appetite or desire.[6]

Semantic evolution

In Anglo-Norman and Old French the verb was first physical: from the mid-12th century it meant to fasten armour, to grip or compress, and to bind or bandage, and about 1177 to control a horse with the reins; the senses "to check, control", "to limit" and "to arrest" followed.[4] Anglo-Norman already used it for holding someone back from a course of action, restricting and apprehending.[15] English took over the figurative senses: to limit (before 1325), to hold a person back from a course of action (1384), to keep a person or animal in check (before 1387), and to repress a desire or emotion (c. 1405, in Chaucer's Melibeus).[4] Chaucer used the verb 25 times and Gower 22 times.[16] The sense of depriving a person of liberty is recorded from 1397, and that of confining or imprisoning from 1491, when it could also mean to embargo a ship;[4] Etymonline dates "deprive of liberty by restraint" to the 1520s.[6] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "to withhold; to keep in" and then as "to repress; to keep in awe".[17] A noun restrain, meaning restraint, was used from about 1449, often in without restrain.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1325 – to restrict, limit or confine.[4]
  • before 1349 – to hold back, keep in check.[3]
  • 1384 – to hold back a person from a course of action.[4]
  • before 1387 – to keep a person or animal under control, often reflexive.[4]
  • before 1393 – to check a natural force; to withhold something from someone.[4]
  • 1397 – to deprive of liberty or rights.[4]
  • c. 1405 – to repress a desire or emotion.[4]
  • c. 1449 – noun restrain, restraint.[4]
  • 1491 – to confine or imprison; in legal use, to prohibit an action.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To hold someone back from an action, especially by force: Two stewards restrained the angry fan.[12][9][4]
  2. To limit or restrict; to keep within bounds or under control: The new rules restrain spending by local councils.[12][9][4]
  3. To deprive someone of liberty, as by imprisonment, or to restrict their movement physically.[12][4]
  4. To check or repress a feeling or desire: She restrained her laughter.[4][9]
  5. (rare) To withhold or keep back something from someone.[4][17]

Word family

  • restrainable
  • restrainer
  • restrainability
  • restrainingly
  • overrestrain

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary's distinction: what we restrain we keep within limits, what we restrict we keep within definite limits, and what we repress we try to put out of existence.[6] Weekley notes that the phrase restraint of princes was still used in marine insurance for an embargo.[13]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  17. ^ 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.