indent

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To begin a line of text further from the margin than the other lines.

   Remember to indent the first line of each paragraph.

Simplified etymology

Indent combines two unrelated words. The verb meaning “make a dent or impression” was formed from Middle English dent, a variant of dint; the other came through Latin dens “tooth” and first meant “give a zigzag, toothlike outline to.” The latter origin also underlies indenture, named for legal documents whose matching copies were once separated along a serrated edge.

Partly from Middle English indenten (“to dent in”), equivalent to in- + dent (see dent); partly from Middle English indenten, endenten, from Old French endenter (“to provide with teeth”), from en- (“in-, en-”) + dent (“tooth”), from Latin dēns.

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External links

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