amplifier

Etymology

It is formed from English amplify + -er.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The verb comes from Middle French amplifier and Latin amplificō (“to enlarge”),^[2][4] formed from amplus (“large”), the source of ample, and a combining form of faciō (“to make, do”).^[5][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who enlarges something or adds to its size or dignity: 1546 according to Merriam-Webster and the 1989 OED,^[3][9] while the OED, which revised the entry in 2024, has its first quotation from J. Bale in 1551.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century an amplifier was mainly a person who made something greater, or who enlarged on a story, an exaggerator; that use, recorded from before 1586 in Sidney's Arcadia, died out by 1920.^[2][4][9] In optics it named, from 1819, a lens system placed between the objective and the eyepiece of a telescope or microscope to increase the magnification.^[2] The electrical sense, a device that increases the strength of a signal, is dated 1914 by Etymonline and the 1989 OED,^[5][9] but the revised OED has it from an American patent of 1887.^[2] From 1940 the word also named a unit combining an amplifier and a loudspeaker, used with microphones and electric instruments.^[2] An alternative name, stentorphone (1921), did not catch on, and the shortening amp is recorded from 1967.^[5]

Timeline

• 1546 – one who enlarges or increases something.^[3][9]
• 1551 – the revised OED's first quotation, in J. Bale.^[2]
• before 1586 – one who enlarges on a narrative, in Sidney's Arcadia (obsolete by 1920).^[2]
• 1819 – a lens system that increases the magnification of a telescope or microscope.^[2]
• 1887 – an electrical device that strengthens a signal.^[2]
• 1914 – the electrical sense, according to Etymonline and the 1989 OED.^[5][9]
• 1940 – a combined amplifier and loudspeaker.^[2]
• 1967 – the shortening amp.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An electronic device that increases the strength of a signal, voltage or current, as in a stereo system: He turned the amplifier down when the neighbours knocked.^[10][3][2]
2. Such a device combined with a loudspeaker, used with a microphone or an electric instrument.^[2][10]
3. An extra lens that changes the magnification of a telescope or microscope, or the focal length of a camera lens.^[2][10]
4. A person or thing that amplifies something.^[3][11][2]
5. (obsolete, 1586–1920) A person who enlarges on a statement or story; an exaggerator.^[2][9]

Word family

• preamplifier
• parametric amplifier
• power amplifier

Related words

• ample
• amplification
• amplificatory
• amplify
• amplitude
• amp

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin