Etymograph

English

line

Line comes from Middle English line ‘rope, cord’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *līną ‘flax, linen’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*līną1‘flax’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*līnǭ1‘line’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*līnā1‘line’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150līne1‘line’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500line1‘rope’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1598line1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English line
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1598, William Shakespeare, As You Like It: “All the pictures fairest lined Are but black to…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*līnąWiktionary, English line‘flax’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*līnǭWiktionary, English line‘line’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*līnāWiktionary, English line‘line’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150līneWiktionary, English line‘line’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lineWiktionary, English line‘rope’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1598lineWiktionary, English line. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1598, William Shakespeare, As You Like It: “All the pictures fairest lined Are but black to…”

The story

Influenced in Middle English by Middle French ligne (‘line’), from Latin linea. The oldest sense of the word is “rope, cord, thread”; from this the senses “path”, “continuous mark” were derived.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-West Germanic *līnā ‘line, chord, rope, string’

lin, linseed

Another origin of line

  1. Koreanmodern라인rain‘members with a shared characteristic’
  2. Englishtodayline

Likely generalized via hyung line, maknae line, etc.

Another origin of line

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*līno-‘flax’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*līną‘flax, linen’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*līnǭ‘line, rope, flaxen cord, thread’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*līnā‘line, chord, rope, string’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150līn‘flax, linen, cloth’
  6. Englishtodayline

For more information, see the entry linen.

Today it means

noun A path through two or more points (compare ‘segment’); a continuous mark, including as made by a pen; any path, curved or straight.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “line”. 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 / Proto-Germanic *līną / line

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