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Origin and history of bend

bend(v.)

Old English bendan "to bend a bow, bring into a curved state; confine with a string, fetter," causative of bindan "to bind," from Proto-Germanic base *band- "string, band" (source also of Old Norse benda "to join, strain, strive, bend"), from PIE root *bhendh- "to bind."

The meaning "curve or make crooked" (early 14c.) is via the notion of bending a bow to string it. The intransitive sense of "become curved or crooked" is from late 14c., that of "incline, turn from the straight line" is from 1510s. The figurative meaning "bow, be submissive" is from c. 1400. Cognate with band, bind, bond, and Bund. Related: Bended; bent; bending.

bend(n.1)

1590s, "a bending or curving;" c. 1600, "thing of bent shape, part that is bent;" from bend (v.). The earliest sense is "act of drawing a bow" (mid-15c.). Old English bend (n.) meant "bond, chain, fetter; band, ribbon," but it survives only in nautical use in this form, the other senses having gone to band (n.1). The bends "decompression pain" is attested from 1894.

also from 1590s

bend(n.2)

"broad diagonal band in a coat-of-arms, etc.," mid-14c., from the earlier sense of "thin, flat strap for wrapping round," from Old English bend "fetter, shackle, chain," from PIE *bhendh- "to bind" (see bend (v.)). Probably in part also from Old French bende (Modern French bande) and Medieval Latin benda, both of them from Germanic. Ordinarily running from the right top to the left bottom; the bend sinister runs along the other diagonal.

also from mid-14c.

Entries linking to bend

band(n.1)

"a flat strip," also "something that binds," Middle English bende, from Old English bend "bond, fetter, shackle, chain, that by which someone or something is bound; ribbon, ornament, chaplet, crown," with later senses and spelling from cognate Old Norse band and technical senses from Old French bande "strip, edge, side" (12c., Old North French bende), all three ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bindan, from PIE root *bhendh- "to bind."

The meaning "a flat strip" (late 14c.) is from French. In Middle English, this was sometimes distinguished by the spelling bande, bonde, but with loss of terminal -e the words have fully merged via the notion of "flat strip of flexible material used to wind around something."

The meaning "broad stripe of color, ray of colored light" is from late 14c.; the electronics sense of "range of frequencies or wavelengths" is from 1922. Most of the figurative senses ("legal or moral commitment; captivity, imprisonment," etc.) have passed into bond (n.), which originally was a phonetic variant of this band. The Middle English form of the word is retained in heraldic bend (n.2) "broad diagonal stripe on a coat-of-arms."

bind(v.)

Old English bindan "to tie up with bonds" (literally and figuratively), also "to make captive; to cover with dressings and bandages" (class III strong verb; past tense band, past participle bunden), from Proto-Germanic *bindanan (source also of Old Saxon bindan, Old Norse and Old Frisian binda, Old High German binten "to bind," German binden, Gothic bindan), from PIE root *bhendh- "to bind." Of books, from c. 1400. Intransitive sense of "stick together, cohere" is from 1670s.