Mount is the French middle rung between native rise and Latin ascend. It came into English about 1300 from Old French monter, "to go up, climb," from Vulgar Latin montare, from Latin mons, "mountain" — so to mount is, underneath, to go up a hill.
The specialisations are all English and all late. Getting up on a horse is the oldest sense, from 1300; rising in amount from the mid-1300s; setting something in position from the 1530s; the copulation sense from the 1590s; preparing something for exhibition by 1712; and posting troops for defence by 1706, which eventually gave mount an attack in 1943. English also has a separate noun mount for a hill, partly from Anglo-French and partly perhaps from Old English munt, itself an early borrowing of the same Latin word.
mount (v.) c. 1300, mounten , "to get up on a horse;" mid-14c., "to rise up, rise in amount, ascend; fly," from Old French monter "to go up, ascend, climb, mount," from Vulgar Latin *montare , from Latin mons (genitive montis ) "mountain" (from PIE root *men- (2) "to project"). The transitive meaning "to set or place in position" first recorded 1530s. Sense of "to get up on for purposes of copulation" is from 1590s. Meaning "prepare for presentation or exhibition" is by 1712. Military meaning "set up or post for defense" is by 1706; to mount an attack is by 1943. Related: Mounted ; mounting . also from c. 1300 mount (n.1) "mountain, lofty hill, elevation of land," late Old English, from Anglo-French mount , Old French mont "mountain;" also perhaps partly from Old English munt "mountain;" both the Old English and the French words from Latin montem (nominative mons ) "mountain," from PIE root *men- (2) "to stand out, project." "From the 17th c. in prose used chiefly of a more or less conical hill of moderate height rising from a plain; a hillock" [OED]. Archaic or poetic only by late 19c. except as part of a proper name. The Sermon on the Mount is in Matthew v-vii and Luke vi. mount (n.2) late 15c., "an act of mounting," from mount (v.) or from Old French monte . Sense of "that on which something is fixed for use and by which it is supported and held in place" is by 1739. The colloquial meaning "a horse for riding" is recorded by 1831 in sporting magazines. also from late 15c.
mount came in through Norman French, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
On the register ladder
English kept all three words for this idea, one from each layer, and the rung is itself the cue: the native word is blunt and concrete, the French one polite, the Latin one formal or technical.
| Old English | French | Latin |
|---|---|---|
| rise | mount | ascend |
Norman French in the spelling guide · guess another word's family