English
intensive
Intensive comes from Old French intensif, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *tend-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*tend-root as named · steps between not traced
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400intensif
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500intensive‘fervent, great, intense’
- Englishearliest quotation 1605same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*tend-root as named · steps between not traced
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400intensif
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500intensive‘fervent, great, intense’
- Englishearliest quotation 1605same form
Earliest quotation: 1605, Francis Bacon, The Second Booke: “Faſcination is the povver and act of Imagination, intenſiue…”
The story
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English intensive (‘fervent, great, intense’), borrowed from Old French intensif, intensive (modern French intensif) + Middle English -ive (suffix meaning ‘of the nature of, relating to’ forming adjectives), equivalent to intense + -ive. Intensif is from Medieval Latin intēnsīvus, from Latin intēnsus (‘attentive; eager, intent; intensive’) + -īvus (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘doing; related to doing’); and intēnsus is the perfect passive participle of intendō (‘to stretch out, strain’), from in- (prefix meaning ‘to, towards’) + tendō (‘to extend, stretch, stretch out’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (‘to extend, stretch’)).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *tend-
Today it means
adj Done with intensity or to a great degree; thorough.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *tend- / intensive