Eloynen

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic Middle English verb meaning to withdraw, remove oneself, or keep at a distance from someone or something
2. A Middle English term for going away or holding oneself apart from a person, place, or thing
3. Old verb describing the act of removing or staying at a remote distance from a particular object or company

Etymology: Before it meant anything about distance, this word was a legal term for hiding or carrying off property so that its rightful owner could not reach it. The Middle English "eloynen" reached English from Anglo-Norman "esloigner," meaning to put far away, which came from Late Latin "exlongare," built from "ex-" and "longe," "far." The Latin root is the same one that gives us "elongate," which entered English much later as a learned borrowing from Latin "elongare." The English form has mostly kept its sense of physical or emotional removal. Its legal use survives in the phrase "to eloign" a prisoner or goods, meaning to move them beyond the reach of a claimant or court. The word is now rare outside legal and literary writing, and it is best known today as the cousin of a far more common word.