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Origin and history of attachment

attachment(n.)

c. 1400, attachement, "arrest of a person on judicial warrant" (mid-13c. in Anglo-Latin), from Anglo-French attachement, from Old French attacher "to attach" (see attach). The word's application to property (including, later, wages) is by 1590s; the meaning "sympathy, devotion" is recorded from 1704; that of "something that is attached to something else" dates from 1797 and has become very common since the rise of electronic mail.

also from c. 1400

Entries linking to attachment

attach(v.)

mid-14c. (mid-13c. in Anglo-Latin), "to take or seize (property or goods) by law," a legal term, from Old French atachier "fasten; arrest" (11c.), earlier estachier "to attach, fix; stake up, support" (Modern French attacher, also compare Italian attaccare), from a- "to" (see ad-) + a base also found in detach, perhaps from Frankish *stakon "a post, stake" or a similar Germanic word, from Proto-Germanic *stakon- "a stake," from PIE root *steg- (1) "pole, stick" (see stake (n.)).

The meaning "fasten, affix, connect," which probably is the original sense etymologically, is attested in English from c. 1400. Related: Attached; attaching.

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    bond
    early 13c., "anything that binds, fastens, or confines," a phonetic variant of band (n.1) and at first interchangeable with it. For vowel change, see long (adj.); also influenced by unrelated Old English bonda "householder," literally "dweller" (see bond (adj.)). It preserves mor
    adherence
    mid-15c., "steady attachment of the mind or feelings to a person, cause, belief, etc.," from Old French adhérence, from Medieval Latin adhaerentia, abstract noun from Latin adhaerent-, present participle stem of adhaerare "stick to," from ad "to" (see ad-) + haerere "to stick" (s
    adhesion
    1620s, "act or state of sticking or being stuck, a being united or attached," from French adhésion or directly from Latin adhaesionem (nominative adhaesio) "a sticking to," noun of action from past-participle stem of adhaerare "to stick to, cling to," from ad "to" (see ad-) + hae
    specialty
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    one devoted to his nation," 1715, from national (adj.) in a now-otherwise-obsolete sense of "patriotic, characterized by attachment...
    training
    Training wheels as an attachment to a bicycle is from 1953....
    pendulum
    "anything that hangs down from a point of attachment and is free to swing;" specifically, in mechanics, "a body so suspended...
    earth
    Old English eorþe "ground, soil, dirt, dry land; country, district," also used (along with middangeard) for "the (material) world, the abode of man" (as opposed to the heavens or the underworld), from Proto-Germanic *ertho (source also of Old Frisian erthe "earth," Old Saxon erth
    heart
    Old English heorte "heart (hollow muscular organ that circulates blood); breast, soul, spirit, will, desire; courage; mind, intellect," from Proto-Germanic *hertan- (source also of Old Saxon herta, Old Frisian herte, Old Norse hjarta, Dutch hart, Old High German herza, German Her
    graft
    "shoot inserted into another plant," late 15c. alteration of Middle English graff (late 14c.), from Old French graife "grafting knife, carving tool; stylus, pen," from Latin graphium "stylus," from Greek grapheion "stylus," from graphein "to write" (see -graphy). So called probab

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