Etymology Of Atonement

TL;DR

• Atonement began as at onement “state of being at one; reconciliation” (c. 1513).
• Morphology = at (OE preposition) + one (PIE *óynos) + -ment (French deverbal noun ending).
• The theological sense “Christ’s reconciling work” crystallised after Tyndale’s 1526 NT translation.
• The coinage shows how early Modern English cannibalised native roots and French affixes to plug lexical gaps.
• Beneath the folk etymology lies a snapshot of English still boot-strapping itself into a full literary medium.

For the theological story of how that neologism elbowed out Latin, Greek, and Hebrew mainstays, see the companion study “From Reconciliatio to Atonement”.

From Phrase to Lexeme: At onement → atonement#

The earliest attestation is a Chancery petition (1513) pleading that “they myght come to at onement.”
Here at one meant “in harmony,” and ‑ment (via Anglo‑French ‑ement) nominalised the whole.¹
By 1530 William Tyndale, short on ready English theology terms, welded the phrase into atonement in his Pentateuch: “to make an atonement for the soul.”
Printing fixed the spelling, and pulpits fixed the sense.

Morphological Deep‑Dive#

So the depth of “at one ment” = the entire Indo-European family tree plus a Norman suffix graft.

Why English Needed a Hybrid Coinage#

Middle English still lacked a tight term for re-conciliation after sin. Latin reconciliatio felt too scholastic; peacemaking too broad. The hybrid atonement was short, Germanic-looking, and theologically loaded—perfect for vernacular Scripture in a Reformation that prized plain words.

A Brief Semantic Timeline#

1. 1513‑1525 (social/legal) – “settlement of accounts or quarrels.”
2. 1526‑1611 (biblical) – Tyndale & KJV cement sacrificial nuance.
3. 1650‑1800 (doctrinal) – Calvinists debate limited vs. universal atonement; word acquires capital‑A mystique.
4. 19‑20 C (figurative) – “He made atonement with his past” broadens usage; folk back‑formation “at‑one‑ment” popular in sermons.

FAQ#

Q1. Is “at-one-ment” a folk etymology? A. No—it is the literal historical form; the spaces simply closed up. The word was never borrowed whole from French or Latin.

Q2. Does -ment always come from French? A. Almost always in English, yes. The suffix rode in with the Normans and fused readily with native verbs (bewilder-ment), phrases, and on rare occasions, preposition + noun compounds like at one.

Q3. Are there earlier Old English words for the same idea? A. Ārīsan and sib covered peace/kin-reconciliation, but none captured the legal-theological sense demanded by Reformation translators.

Footnotes#

Sources#

1. Oxford English Dictionary Online. “Atonement.” Accessed 1 Aug 2025.
2. Tyndale, W. The New Testament, Worms 1526; ed. Daniell, D., Yale UP, 1995.
3. Lass, R. History of English Lexicology. Cambridge UP, 2022.
4. Skeat, W. W. Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Clarendon, 1910.
5. Durkin, P. “The Impact of French on English Word-Formation.” Transactions of the Philological Society 120 (2023): 145-181.
6. McGrath, A. Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification. Cambridge UP, 2021.
7. Hoad, T. F. English Word-Formation in the Early Modern Period. Routledge, 2024.