abound

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English abounden, also abunden and habounden,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman abunder, also abounder and habunder,^[4][3][5] and Old French abonder,^{[4][6][7][8][9]} from Latin abundō (“to overflow, be plentifully supplied”).^{[4][6][8][3][7]} The Latin verb is formed from ab- (“away, off”) and undō (“to rise in waves, surge”), from unda (“a wave”),^{[6][8][3][7][10]} which Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace to Proto-Indo-European *wed- (“water; wet”).^[6][7] Ayto points out that it has nothing to do with bind or bound, and that its nearest English relative is water.^[10] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the first half of the 12th century, meaning to have something in plenty, and by the late 12th century to exist in plenty.^[4][5] The spellings with h-, in Latin, French and English, probably come from a mistaken link with habeō (“to have”).^[4][11][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To be plentiful, to exist in great number or quantity: before 1350, in a dream-book.^[4][2] Barnhart dates it to about 1325,^[12][8] and Etymonline to the early 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb was literally "to flow away", hence "to overflow", and finally "to be plentiful".^[10] In Middle English the word kept something of the image: it could be used of water overflowing, and of a virtue or emotion being full or great.^[2] From 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible, it also meant to be rich, to prosper, a sense now archaic.^[4][3] The construction abound in, to have a great deal of something, dates from about 1384,^[4] abound with from about 1425, in Lydgate's Troy Book,^[4] and abound of became rare after the 17th century.^[4] The Wycliffite Bible's abound in one's own sense, to follow one's own opinion, imitates the Latin of the Vulgate.^[4] Chaucer used the verb nine times, always in the h- spelling.^[13] Johnson (1755) noted that it was followed sometimes by in and at other times by with.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1350 – to be plentiful.^[4][2]
• 1382 – to be rich, to prosper (now archaic).^[4]
• c. 1384 – abound in, to have plenty of, and abound in one's own sense.^[4]
• c. 1390 – abound of (now obsolete).^[4]
• c. 1425 – abound with.^[4]
• 1591 – to overflow with, pour forth (obsolete by 1627).^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To exist in large numbers or great quantity; to be plentiful: Rumours abounded after the minister resigned.^[15][3][4]
2. abound in or abound with: to be richly supplied with; to teem with: The old forest abounds with birds.^[15][3][4]
3. (archaic) To be wealthy; to prosper.^[3][4]

Word family

• aboundingly
• overabound
• superabound

Related words

• abundance
• abundant
• redound
• surround
• undulate
• water

Usage notes

A separate verb abound, probably formed from a- and bound, meant to set limits to, or of land to be bounded, from 1398 to 1759; it has been used again in the United States since 1860, of a property bordering on another.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins