Other forms: attained, attaining, attains
To attain is the formal word for finally reaching a high goal. Attain a standard, attain the summit, attain the age of.
It implies effort over time and an end worth reaching: attain a qualification, attain full membership. In legal and official writing, attain the age of is the standard formula. It is more formal than reach and more purposeful than get to. Note attainment, which in education means what a pupil has achieved and is measured constantly; and attainable, meaning within reach.
1verbattainTo finally reach a high goal.
“It took her ten years of training to attain her black belt.”
attain is a reaching.
Also accepted in games: achieve
Old French ataindre comes from Latin attingere, to touch or reach — ad plus tangere, to touch. Contact, tangent and contagion come from the same touching.
Proto-Indo-European
*teh₂g- — to grasp; to touch
Latin
attingere
Vulgar Latin
*attangere
Old French
ataindre
Anglo-Norman
ataindre
Middle English
atteinen
English, today
attain
Built from
The is derived from Middle English atteinen, atteynen (“to achieve, attain; to be adequate or sufficient; to affect; to come or get to (a place), reach; to corrupt, taint; to overcome, overpower; to overtake; to succeed; to tamper with; (law) to bring to justice, punish”), from ataign-, a of Anglo-Norman ataindre, and Old French ataindre, attaindre (“to reach”) (modern French atteindre), from Vulgar Latin attangere, from Latin attingere, the of attingō (“to come into contact with, touch; to affect; to arrive at, reach; etc.”), from ad- (appearing as at- due to assimilation with the following t, inducing) + tangō (“to grasp, touch; to arrive at, reach; to attain; etc.”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European teh₂g- (“to grasp; to touch”)). a doublet of attainder and attinge. The is derived from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA