Etymology Dictionary

ADJUST,  to settle, make right.  (F.,—L.)   In Addison's translation of Ovid's story of Aglauros.  M.E. aiusten ( = ajusten) in the old editions of Chaucer's Boethius, but omitted in Dr. Morris's edition, p. 37, l. 6; see Richardson.—O.F. ajoster, ajuster, ajouster (mod. F. ajouter), to arrange, lit. to put side by side.—Low Lat. adiuxtare, to put side by side, arrange.—Lat. ad, to, by; and iuxta, near, lit. adjoining or joining to.—✔YUG, to join; whence also Lat. iugum, cognate with E. yoke, and iu-n-gere, to join.   See Join.  Der. adjust-ment, adjust-able.   ¶ But see Errata. [※]

ERRATA

'Littré makes two O.F. ajuster:  1 = *adjŭxtare, 2 = *adjūstare (both common in Med. Lat.).   Mr. H. Nicol in private letter had pointed out that O. Fr. had only ajuster, ajoster = adjŭxtare, and that Med. Lat. adjustare was a purely artificial word formed later on Fr. ajuster.   Ajuster, later Ajouster, adjouster, gave a M.E. aiust, adjoust common in "adjoust feyth," Fr. adjouster foy.   This was already observable to Palsgrave.   Fr. adjouster became adjouter, ajouter, whence a 16th cent. Eng. adjute, to add, explained by Dr. Johnson as from Lat. adjūtare.   In 16th cent. a new Fr. adjuster, ajuster was formed probably from Med. Lat. adjustare, but perhaps from Ital. aggiustare ( = adjuxtare), or even from Fr. à + juste.   This English has adopted as adjust.'   Note by Dr. Murray, Phil. Soc. Proceedings, Feb. 6, 1880.   The result is that my explanation of M.E. aiusten is quite right; but the mod. E. adjust appears to be not the same word, the older word being displaced by a new formation from Lat. iustus.