lien

See also: Lien, líen, liền, and liên

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French lien, from Latin ligāmen (“a bond”), from ligō (“tie, bind”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /liːn/, /liːən/
• Homophone: lean (IPA^(key): /liːn/)

Noun

lien (plural liens)

1. (obsolete) A tendon.
2. (law) A legal claim; a charge upon real or personal property for the satisfaction of some debt or duty.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 7:

     Bodin deemed the king of France's power as absolute in the sense that the ruler was ‘absolved’ by divine sanction from legally binding liens and restrictions.

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see Citations:lien.

Derived terms

• lienholder

Translations

a legal claim; a charge upon real or personal property for the satisfaction of some debt or duty

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 留置權 (zh), 留置权 (zh) (liúzhìquán)

• Czech: zástavní právo n
• French: sûreté réelle f
• German: Pfandrecht n
• Hungarian: zálogjog (hu)
• Japanese: 担保物権 (ja) (たんぽぶっけん, tanpo bukken)

• Polish: zastaw (pl) m
• Portuguese: retenção (pt) f
• Russian: зало́говое пра́во n (zalógovoje právo), зало́г (ru) m (zalóg)
• Slovak: záložné právo n
• Slovene: zastavna pravica f
• Spanish: embargo (es) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Norwegian: ^{(please verify)} heftelse

• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} lån (sv)

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• lyen

Verb

lien

1. (biblical, archaic) Alternative form of lain

   1611, Bible (King James Version), Genesis 26:10:

   And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done vnto vs? one of the people might lightly haue lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest haue brought guiltinesse vpon vs.”

   1611, Bible (King James Version), Numbers 5:19:

   And the Priest shall charge her by an othe, and say vnto the woman, If no man haue lyen with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to vncleannesse with another in stead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse.

Anagrams

• LEIN, LINE, Neil, Niel, Nile, line

---

Cornish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈliːɛn]

Noun

lien m (plural liennow)

1. literature

---

French

Etymology

From Middle French lien, from Old French lien, from Latin ligāmen (“bond”), from ligō.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ljɛ̃/

Noun

lien m (plural liens)

1. link

Related terms

• lier
• relier

Further reading

• “lien” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

---

Latin

Alternative forms

• liēnis m

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European [Term?]. Cognate with Old Irish selg, Lithuanian blužnis, Ancient Greek σπλήν (splḗn), Old Armenian փայծաղն (pʿaycałn), Avestan 𐬯𐬞𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬰𐬀𐬥-‏ (spərəzan-), and Sanskrit प्लिहन् (plihan).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈli.eːn/

Noun

liēn m (genitive liēnis); third declension

1. spleen

Inflection

Third declension.

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	liēn	liēnēs
genitive	liēnis	liēnum
dative	liēnī	liēnibus
accusative	liēnem	liēnēs
ablative	liēne	liēnibus
vocative	liēn	liēnēs

References

• lien in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lien” in Félix Gaffiot’s Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette (1934)

---

Latvian

Verb

lien

1. 2nd person singular present indicative form of līst
2. 3rd person singular present indicative form of līst
3. 3rd person plural present indicative form of līst
4. 2nd person singular imperative form of līst
5. (with the particle lai) 3rd person singular imperative form of līst
6. (with the particle lai) 3rd person plural imperative form of līst

---

Middle Dutch

Etymology 1

Verb

liën

1. (transitive) to admit
2. (transitive) to acknowledge, to be convinced
3. (transitive) to declare
4. (intransitive) to assent

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Etymology 2

From Old Dutch *līan, from Proto-Germanic *līhwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *leykʷ-.

Verb

liën

1. (eastern) to lend

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

• “liën (II)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “liën (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929
• “liën (II)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

---

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French lien.

Noun

lien m (plural liens)

1. tie; strap
2. (by extension) link (association)

Descendants

• English: lien (borrowing)
• French: lien

---

Old French

Alternative forms

• lïen (diareses not universally used in transcriptions of Old French)

Etymology

From Latin ligāmen.

Noun

lien m (oblique plural liens, nominative singular liens, nominative plural lien)

1. tie; strap
   • late 12th century, anonymous, La Folie de Tristan d'Oxford, page 408 (of the Champion Classiques edition of Le Roman de Tristan, ISBN 2-7453-0520-4, lines 901-2:

     Brenguain, ore alez pur le chen,
     amenez k'od tut le lïen

     Brangain, go get the dog,
     bring it with its leash

Descendants

• Middle French: lien
  • English: lien (borrowing)
  • French: lien

---

Swedish

Noun

lien

1. definite singular of lie