amplitude

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French amplitude (“dignity, grandeur; physical extent”) and directly borrowed from Latin amplitūdō (“size, extent, abundance, greatness”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from amplus (“large, spacious”), the source of ample, and the suffix -tūdō (-tude).^[2][7][4][5] The American Heritage Dictionary, the ODE and Dictionary.com derive it from Latin alone.^[8][9][10] In French the word is recorded from 1483.^[2] Etymonline relates the Latin adjective to ampla (“handle, grip”) and traces it to Proto-Italic *amlo- (“seizable”),^[3] and Klein explains it as "comprehensive", from an Indo-European base meaning "to seize, hold".^[6] The OED compares Catalan amplitud, Spanish amplitud and Italian amplitudine.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Excellence, dignity, grandeur: 1534, in a translation of Lorenzo Valla's treatise on the Donation of Constantine.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1542,^[7] Etymonline to the 1540s,^[3] and Barnhart to 1549.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense of dignity or splendour, which the French word also had, was obsolete by the 1830s.^[2] From 1545 the word was used of physical size and extent, and of the fullness or abundance of immaterial things, and by about 1578 of the breadth of the mind.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as extent, largeness and greatness, among other senses.^[11] The technical senses followed French, which had them first:^[2] in astronomy, the angular distance of a rising or setting celestial body from due east or west (1585); in gunnery, the range of a projectile (1728, now obsolete); and in physics, the size of a vibration or oscillation (1819).^[2] In mathematics, from 1838, it is the angle of a complex number.^[2][12] The phrase amplitude modulation, in radio broadcasting, is recorded from 1921 and is usually abbreviated AM.^[3]

Timeline

• 1534 – excellence, dignity, grandeur (to 1834).^[2]
• 1545 – size, physical extent; fullness, abundance.^[2]
• c. 1578 – breadth or depth of mind.^[2]
• 1585 – in astronomy, the angular distance of a celestial body from east or west.^[2]
• 1728 – in gunnery, the range of a projectile (to 1850).^[2]
• 1819 – in physics, the size of a vibration or oscillation.^[2]
• 1838 – in mathematics, the angle of a complex number.^[2]
• 1921 – amplitude modulation.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Great size or extent; magnitude or breadth.^[12][13][7]
2. Fullness or abundance.^[12][13][7]
3. Breadth or range of mind or understanding.^[12][13][2]
4. (physics) The greatest distance by which a wave or oscillation moves away from its mean value: the amplitude of a pendulum's swing.^[13][2][14]
5. (astronomy) The angular distance along the horizon from due east or west to the point where a celestial body's vertical circle meets it.^[12][13][2]
6. (mathematics) The argument of a complex number.^[12][2]
7. (obsolete, 1534–1834) Dignity, excellence or splendour.^[2][14]

Word family

• amplitude modulation

Related words

• ample
• amplification
• amplifier
• amplificatory
• amplify

References

1. ^ 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 r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
14. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster