Etymologically
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retain

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɹɪˈteɪn/ (UK); /ɹɪˈteɪn/, /ɹi-/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English reteinen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman retei(g)n-, the stressed stem of Old French retenir (“to keep, retain; take into service; remember”),[2][3][4][5] from Latin retinēre (“to hold back”), from re- (“back”) and tenēre (“to hold”) (see tenant),[2][3][6] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To hold back or restrain: about 1386, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.[2][7] Etymonline dates keep possession of to the late 14th century and restrain (now obsolete) to the early 15th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

To keep someone attached to oneself or in one's service is from the mid-15th century,[3][4] and specifically to engage a lawyer from the 1540s.[3] To keep in mind or remember is from about 1500.[3][4] To keep hold or possession of is 15th-century.[4] Retainer, a fee to engage a lawyer, follows from the legal sense.[8][9]

Timeline

  • c. 1386 – to hold back.[2]
  • mid-15th century – to keep in service.[3]
  • c. 1500 – to remember.[3]
  • 1540s – to engage a lawyer.[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To continue to have or hold; to keep.
  2. To keep in place or hold back, as a liquid or heat.
  3. To remember: retain information.
  4. To engage the services of a lawyer or other professional by paying a fee in advance.

Word family

  • retainability
  • retainable
  • retainment
  • unretained
  • retainer
  • retainership

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins