Emend & Amend

Emend (pronounced ih-mend)

(1) To edit or change a text by means of by critical editing.

(2) To free from faults or errors; to correct.

1375–1425: From the late Middle English emend, from the Middle French emender, from the Latin Latin ēmendāre (to correct), the construct being ē- (in the sense of “out”) + mend(um) (fault) + -āre (the infinitive suffix).  The adjective emendable (capable of being emended, corrigible) was from the Latin emendabilis (the comparative more emendable, the superlative most emendable).  Emendation was from the Middle English emendatioun, from the Latin emendationem (nominative ēmendātiō) (a correction, improvement), a noun of action from past-participle stem of emendare (to free from fault) and is the only form of emend to have survived to see occasional use in the twenty-first century, specialists finding three niches: (1) The act of altering for the better, or correcting what is erroneous or faulty; correction; improvement, (2) an alteration by editorial criticism, as of a text so as to give a better reading; removal of errors or corruptions from a document and (3), in zoology & taxonomy, an intentional change in the spelling of a scientific name (something usually proscribed).  The verb emend emerged probably simultaneously with the noun, the original sense being “remove faults from, alter for the better”.  Emend is a verb, emendation is a noun, emending & emended are verbs (historically emended was used as an adjective) and emendable is an adjective (eˈmendable the historic alternative spelling); the noun plural is emendations.  The derived forms included nonemendable, unemendable, unemended (all rare and historically rarely hyphenated).

Amend (pronounced uh-mend)

(1) To alter, modify, rephrase, or add to or subtract from (a motion, bill, constitution etc) by a formal procedure or device.

(2) To change something for the better; improve

(3) In the sense of “to amend one's ways”, to grow or become better by “reforming” one’s character or behavior oneself.

(4) In the sense of “to make amends”, an act of righting a wrong; compensation.

(5) To remove or correct faults in something; to rectify defects or in some way improve.

(6) To heal (someone sick); to cure (a disease etc) (obsolete).

(7) To be healed, to be cured, to recover (from an illness) (obsolete).

1175–1225: From the Middle English amenden (to free from faults, rectify), from the twelfth century Old French amender (correct, set right, make better, improve), from the Latin ēmendō (free from faults), the construct being ex- (from, out of) + mendum (fault), from ēmendāre (to correct), the construct being ē- (out of, from) + mend(a) (blemish) + -āre (the infinitive suffix).  The primitive Indo-European mend (physical defect, fault) was the source also of the Sanskrit minda (physical blemish), the Old Irish mennar (stain, blemish), the Welsh mann (sign, mark) and the Hittite mant- (something harming).  The parallel development of the words spelled with an initial “a” & “e” was not usual in English but happened also in Italian and Provençal and Italian.  The meaning “to add to legislation” (ostensibly to improve or correct) appears first in British parliamentary records in 1777.  The noun amendment (betterment, improvement) was in use by the late thirteenth century of persons to suggest their “correction or reformation”; it was from the Old French amendement (rectification, correction; advancement, improvement), from amender (to amend) and in the 1600s the use expanded to the law including “correction of error in a legal process” and later “alteration of a writ or bill to remove fault”.  The noun amends in the sense of “recompense, compensation for loss or injury” was a collective singular, from the Old French amendes “fine, penalty, reparation, compensation”, the plural of amende (reparation) from amender (to amend) and use began in the early 1300s.  The adjective amendable (capable of correction or repair) dates from the 1580s while the injunction “unamendable” came into use (often with an exclamation mark) in the early twentieth century, presumably as a punchier version of “not to be amended”.  Amend is a noun & verb, amender (aˈmender the historic alternative spelling), amendability, amendment & amendation are nouns, amending is a verb, amended is a verb & adjective, amendable (aˈmendable the historic alternative spelling) & amendful are adjectives; the common noun plural is amendments.  The derived forms included nonamendable, unamendable, reamend  & unamended (all except unamended now rare and sometimes hyphenated).

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

There is sometimes a quality of randomness in the way English evolves.  Amend & emend both once meant “to improve by correcting or by freeing from error” but amend is now a general term which can mean “correct (errors in content, spelling, punctuation, grammar” or “make a change” (which may have no substantive effect).  Emend however specifically refers to a conjectural correction of error in a manuscript or proof copy; it’s thus now a technical term from publishing describing the correction of a text in the process of editing or preparing for publication and at least implies improvement in the sense of greater accuracy.  There have however been a number of instances where “emendations” have been controversial, often in the transcription from original log or diary entries written contemporaneously to printed form for purposes of record or public consumption.  Examples include the sanitized version of the “Chronicle” (the so-called “Speer Chronik” or “Office Journal”), the diary of departmental activities undertaken under Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) and the “War Diary” of Field Marshal Douglas Haig (Earl Haig, 1861–1928; commander-in-chief of British Army forces on the Western Front 1915-1918).  So synonyms like change, augment, alter, enhance, modify, rectify, revise, remedy, better, ameliorate & correct can all be used of amend but only forms like correct, rectify or remedy really convey the modern sense of emend.