incline

English incline comes from Middle English enclinen, borrowed from Old French encliner, which traces to Latin inclīnāre — a combination of in- and clīnō, meaning to bend or tilt.

The word entered English through French before settling into its current spelling and sense of leaning or tending toward something, staying close to its Latin root meaning of tilting.

Clīnō, the Latin root at its core, also lives on in English words ending in -cline, and traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱley-, the same root behind the English word lean.