Etymograph

English

amendment

Amendment comes from French amendement, from Late Latin amendamentum (equivalent to amend + -ment).

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEamendamentum1
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentamendement1
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2014amendment1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English amendment
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2014, Ian Black, Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis: “Arrests and prosecutions intensified after Isis captured Mosul in…”.

Lineage

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEamendamentumWiktionary, English amendment
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentamendementWiktionary, English amendment
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2014amendmentWiktionary, English amendment. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2014, Ian Black, Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis: “Arrests and prosecutions intensified after Isis captured Mosul in…”

Formed from amend + -ment

Latin ēmendō ‘free from faults’

Old French amender ‘to correct’

Middle English amenden

English amend

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *mend- ‘foal, small horse’

mend, 14 more

Today it means

noun An alteration or change for the better; correction of a fault or of faults; reformation of life by quitting vices.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “amendment”. 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 / Late Latin amendamentum / amendment

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