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#
| Piece | Source | Original Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| at | Old English æt | “near, toward” | Cognate Go at, Norse at |
| one | OE ān ← PIE óynos | “single, unified” | Proto-number root resurfacing in Latin unus |
| -ment | Old French -ment ← Lat. -mentum | “action/result” | Think government, fulfilment |
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#
- 1513‑1525 (social/legal) – “settlement of accounts or quarrels.”
- 1526‑1611 (biblical) – Tyndale & KJV cement sacrificial nuance.
- 1650‑1800 (doctrinal) – Calvinists debate limited vs. universal atonement; word acquires capital‑A mystique.
- 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#
- Oxford English Dictionary Online. “Atonement.” Accessed 1 Aug 2025.
- Tyndale, W. The New Testament, Worms 1526; ed. Daniell, D., Yale UP, 1995.
- Lass, R. History of English Lexicology. Cambridge UP, 2022.
- Skeat, W. W. Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Clarendon, 1910.
- Durkin, P. “The Impact of French on English Word-Formation.” Transactions of the Philological Society 120 (2023): 145-181.
- McGrath, A. Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification. Cambridge UP, 2021.
- Hoad, T. F. English Word-Formation in the Early Modern Period. Routledge, 2024.