English
amplitude
Amplitude comes from Latin amplitūdō ‘a wide extent’, and goes back to amplus ‘large’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEamplus‘large’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEamplitūdō‘a wide extent’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600amplitude
- Englishearliest quotation 1655same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEamplus‘large’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEamplitūdō‘a wide extent’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600amplitude
- Englishearliest quotation 1655same form
Earliest quotation: 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […]: “The cathedral of Lincoln […] is a magnificent structure,…”
Equivalent to ample + -itude
Latin amplus ‘large’
Old French ample
Middle French ample
Middle English ample ‘ample, copious, profuse’
English ample
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- ‘to fill’
people, public, popular, complete, plus, supply, poll, folk, completion, implement, supplement, manipulation, comply, accomplish, complement, plural, plethora, depletion, puri, replete, volk, plebs, deplete, plebeian, 76 more
through Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós ‘full’
through Latin plēnus ‘full’
plenty, plain, plenary, replenish, plenum, 16 more
through Latin amplus ‘large’
Today it means
noun The measure of the size of something, especially its width or breadth; largeness, magnitude.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin amplus / amplitude