sinew

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sineu, also senewe,^[2][3] inherited from Old English seonu (“sinew, tendon, nerve”), also sinu,^[4][5] developed from the oblique forms seonowe and sionwe,^[6][7][8] from Proto-Germanic *sinwō,^[8][1][9] which Barnhart writes *senawō.^[7] Cognates are Old Frisian sine, Old Saxon sinewa, Old High German senawa, German Sehne, Dutch zenuw and Old Norse sin.^[7][8][3][9] Outside Germanic, Orel compares Avestan hinu- (“band, chain, manacle”), Old Irish sín (“chain”) and Latvian pasainis (“string”).^[9] The further root is disputed.^[8][1] Etymonline, Klein and Barnhart take it from a root meaning "to bind", Proto-Indo-European *sai- in Etymonline,^[8][3][7] with Hittite ishai- (“to bind”),^[8][7] Ancient Greek ἱμάς (himás, “strap, thong”)^[7][10] and Latin saeta (“bristle”).^[10][3] Wiktionary instead reconstructs *snéh₁wr̥ (“sinew, tendon”), from *(s)neh₁- (“to twist threads, spin”), with Sanskrit स्नावन् (snāván, “sinew, tendon”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tendon: in Beowulf,^[6] which Barnhart dates to about 725.^[7] Old English texts also use it to gloss Latin nervus, as in the Old English version of Genesis 32:25.^[4] In Middle English it is first recorded as senuwe, probably before 1200, in Layamon.^[7]

Semantic evolution

A tendon taken from an animal served for binding, as a snare and as a string for an instrument from before 1400,^[6] and since 1825 sinew could be the tissue itself as a substance.^[6][11] A 16th-century herbal extended it to the rib of a leaf.^[6] Until 1621 the word could also mean a nerve,^[6][10] and Johnson (1755) still listed "muscle or nerve".^[12] Figuratively, the plural came to mean strength or energy from 1560, and the chief support of something from 1579.^[6][11] The phrase the sinews of war, money, is recorded from 1560^[6] and follows Cicero's nervi belli pecunia.^[13][14] The verb, formed from the noun, first meant to tie together or cover with sinews (1592, in Nashe)^[6][7] and then to strengthen (1625, in Donne);^[6] Merriam-Webster dates its first sense to about 1614.^[10] Scots and northern English have forms in -n, such as sinnen and shinnon,^[15] which the OED compares with minnon for minnow.^[6] Scots has the saying "There's a teuch sinnen in an auld wife's neck".^[15]

Timeline

• c. 725 – a tendon, in Beowulf.^[7][6]
• before 1200 – the Middle English form senuwe.^[7]
• 1398 – a nerve (obsolete by 1621).^[6]
• before 1400 – a tendon used for tying, a snare, a string of an instrument.^[6]
• 1551 – the rib of a leaf (obsolete by 1585).^[6]
• 1560 – strength, force, and the sinews of war, money.^[6]
• 1579 – the mainstay of something.^[6]
• 1592 – verb, to tie together or cover with sinews.^[6][7] Merriam-Webster dates this to about 1614.^[10]
• 1625 – verb, to strengthen as with sinews.^[6]
• 1825 – the material of tendons, as a substance.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tendon; a strong band of fibrous tissue joining a muscle to a bone.^[16][10][6]
2. A tendon prepared for use as a cord or thread.^[10][6]
3. Tendon tissue as a substance.^[6][11]
4. (usually plural) Solid strength or power: The new party lacked the political sinew to win.^[10][16][6]
5. (often plural) The main support of something, as in the sinews of war, money.^{[10][6][11][13]}
6. (literary) A muscle.^[16]
7. (obsolete, 1398–1621) A nerve.^[6][10][11]

Verb

1. To make strong, as if with sinews; to give force or firmness to.^[10][6][11]
2. (rare) To run through or bind with sinews or something like them.^[10][6][11]

Word family

• sinewless
• sinewy

Related words

• nerve
• neuron
• seta

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ 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 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins