'engage' originates from Old French, specifically the word 'engagier' (or 'engager'), where the prefix 'en-' meant 'in' or 'cause to' and 'gagier'/'gager' meant 'to pledge' or 'to give a pledge.'

'engage' changed from Old French 'engagier' and Anglo-Norman forms into Middle English as 'engagen' or 'engaǵen' and eventually became the modern English word 'engage.'

Initially, it meant 'to give as a pledge, to pawn' or 'to pledge oneself'; over time it broadened to 'to bind, to involve, to hire, to enter into combat, or to engage attention,' the meanings used in modern English.