Etymograph

English

amend

Amend comes from Old French amender ‘to correct’, and goes back to Latin ēmendō ‘free from faults’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēmendō1‘free from faults’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400amender1‘to correct’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500amenden1
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1590amend1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English amend
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto X: “But Paridell complaynd, that his late fight / With…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēmendōWiktionary, English amend‘free from faults’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400amenderWiktionary, English amend‘to correct’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500amendenWiktionary, English amend
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1590amendWiktionary, English amend. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto X: “But Paridell complaynd, that his late fight / With…”

A compound of ex ‘from, out of’ + mendum ‘fault’

Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵʰs ‘out’

Proto-Italic *eks

Latin ex ‘from, out of’

Proto-Indo-European *men- ‘to think’

Proto-Indo-European *mend- ‘physical defect, fault’

Latin mendum ‘fault’

Every English word from Latin ēmendō

Today it means

verb To make better; improve.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “amend”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin ēmendō / amend

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