To voluntarily join the military; to get someone's help or support for a cause.
From French 'enlister,' combining 'en-' (put into) and 'liste' (list). First used in English in the 1700s specifically for military enrollment. The figurative sense (to enlist help) emerged as the word generalized.
When you enlist in a military, you're literally putting your name on an official list—that's why it's called that. The military still keeps detailed enlistment records, and these historical records are now goldmines for genealogy researchers tracing family histories.
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