entry
line
/laɪn/A mark, path, series, boundary, or direction
From Proto-Indo-European, through Proto-Germanic and Old English; reinforced by Latin via French line (Flax).
from Proto-Germanic *līnǭ (“line, rope, flaxen cord, thread”)
from Proto-Germanic *līnǭ (“line, rope, flaxen cord, thread”)
from Latin linea "linen thread, string, plumb-line," also "a mark, bound, limit, goal; line of descent," short for...
+1 more sourcefrom Middle English line, lyne
from Latin linea "linen thread, string, plumb-line," also "a mark, bound, limit, goal; line of descent," short for...
+1 more sourceWord Ancestry
from Proto-Germanic *līnǭ (“line, rope, flaxen cord, thread”)
from Proto-Germanic *līnǭ (“line, rope, flaxen cord, thread”)
from Latin linea "linen thread, string, plumb-line," also "a mark, bound, limit, goal; line of descent," short for...
+1 more sourcefrom Middle English line, lyne
from Latin linea "linen thread, string, plumb-line," also "a mark, bound, limit, goal; line of descent," short for...
+1 more sourcePicture a medieval builder stretching a taut cord across a wall to make sure the stones behaved themselves. That practical rope is the oldest English sense of line, and from it came the ideas of a mark, a direction, a boundary, and eventually a mathematical object with length but no breadth. The word traveled along two closely related-looking roads: Old English līne came through the Germanic flax-and-cord family, while French ligne brought the Latin form linea into Middle English. Latin linea itself meant a linen thread or plumb-line, so the modern line is, in a sense, a piece of ancient flax still guiding our geometry. By the 1550s, English speakers could use line for people standing one behind another; by the 1630s, it meant someone’s occupation or “branch of business,” and by 1847 it could mean a telegraph wire. Even verse is a cousin: Latin versus meant a row or line of writing, originally imagined as a plowman turning at the end of a furrow. Whenever you draw a line, join a line, or wait in one, you are echoing that old builder’s cord stretched tight across the world.
The Story
Picture a medieval builder stretching a taut cord across a wall to make sure the stones behaved themselves. That practical rope is the oldest English sense of line, and from it came the ideas of a mark, a direction, a boundary, and eventually a mathematical object with length but no breadth. The word traveled along two closely related-looking roads: Old English līne came through the Germanic flax-and-cord family, while French ligne brought the Latin form linea into Middle English. Latin linea itself meant a linen thread or plumb-line, so the modern line is, in a sense, a piece of ancient flax still guiding our geometry. By the 1550s, English speakers could use line for people standing one behind another; by the 1630s, it meant someone’s occupation or “branch of business,” and by 1847 it could mean a telegraph wire. Even verse is a cousin: Latin versus meant a row or line of writing, originally imagined as a plowman turning at the end of a furrow. Whenever you draw a line, join a line, or wait in one, you are echoing that old builder’s cord stretched tight across the world.
Modern Usage
In a documented slang use, a quantity of codeine cough syrup sold as a unit; “line up” can also mean setting someone up or plotting against them.
Notable References
- Urban Dictionary entries supplied in the source data
Kin & Kindred
From 'line'·Flax, linen fiber, cord, or thread
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Urban Dictionary
Wiktionary