bind (English)

Where does "bind" come from?

The English verb 'bind' descends directly from Middle English 'binden'[1][3] and Old English 'bindan'[1][2], tracing further back through Proto-West Germanic '*bindan'[1][5] and Proto-Germanic '*bindaną'[1][4] to the Proto-Indo-European root '*bʰendʰ-' meaning 'to tie'[1][4]. This deep ancestral lineage shares cognates across many language families, including Sanskrit 'bándhati', Persian 'bastan', and Ancient Greek 'πεῖσμα'.

Open questions

The intermediate Proto-Indo-European verb form '*bʰéndʰ-e-ti' and root '*bʰendʰ-' are reconstructed forms based on comparative linguistic evidence rather than directly attested written records. [1] [4]

Full etymology tree

bind (English), 'To tie; to confine by any ligature.'
- inherited binden (Middle English), 'To bind, fasten; to make a knot or fastening.'
  - inherited bindan (Old English), 'to bind, constrain'
    - inherited *bindan (Proto-West Germanic), 'to bind, to tie'
      - inherited *bindaną (Proto-Germanic), 'to bind, to tie'
        inherited *bʰéndʰ-e-ti (Proto-Indo-European)
        derived *bʰendʰ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to bind'

Ancestors

*bʰendʰ- (Proto-Indo-European)
binden (Middle English)
bindan (Old English)
*bindan (Proto-West Germanic)
*bindaną (Proto-Germanic)

Cognates and doublets

bind (Albanian)
πεῖσμα (Ancient Greek)
binde (Danish)
binden (Dutch)
bandana (English)
binden (German)
offendix (Latin)
bendras (Lithuanian)
بستن (Persian)
बन्धति (Sanskrit)
ben (Welsh)
bine (West Frisian)

Descendants and derived words

bindable (English)
bindee (English)
binder (English)
bindery (English)
bind hand and foot (English)
binding knot (English)
binding spell (English)
bind off (English)
bind off (English)
bind on equip (English)
bind on equip (English)
bind on pickup (English)

Sources

Updated September 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris