English
vast
Vast comes from Latin vastus ‘void, immense’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘empty, wasted’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-‘empty’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*(h₁)weh₂-stosreconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wāstosreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvastus‘void’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600vaste
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1593vast
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-‘empty’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*(h₁)weh₂-stosreconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wāstosreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvastus‘void’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600vaste
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1593vast
Earliest quotation: c. 1593, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]: “the empty, vast, and wandering air”.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘empty, wasted’
want, various, variety, vacation, waste, void, variable, vary, vacant, vanity, vain, evacuate, vanish, waning, vacate, wane, vacuous, varicella, evanescent, 25 more
through Latin vastus ‘void, immense’
Today it means
adj Very large or wide (literally or figuratively).
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- / vast