Etymologically
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augment

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɔːɡˈmɛnt/, /ˈɔːɡmɛnt/[1]
  • US: /ɔɡˈmɛnt/, /ɑɡˈmɛnt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English augmenten, also aumenten,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman augmenter and Middle French augmenter, rarely aumenter,[4][5][6] and directly borrowed from Late Latin augmentō (“to increase”),[4][2][7] from augmentum (“an increase, growth”),[8][7][5] formed from augeō (“to increase”) and the suffix -mentum,[4][3] from Proto-Indo-European *aug- (“to increase”).[8][7] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1395–96, meaning to enhance, increase, build up or restore.[9] The noun was taken directly from the Latin noun, or partly through French;[4][10][11] in post-classical Latin it already named the prefixed vowel of Greek grammar, in Erasmus before 1536.[4] The verb is related to eke,[6][12] auction[13][14] and author.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make greater, and to become greater, in number, size or degree: before 1400, in a translation of Lanfranc's Science of Cirurgie.[4][2][5] Etymonline gives a first sense "to become more severe" in the late 14th century.[8] The noun, an increase, is recorded from about 1425, in Lydgate's Troy Book.[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th to 17th centuries the verb could also mean to enrich a person (1427–1704) and to raise a person in rank (1567–1655).[4] In heraldry it meant from 1572 to add a charge to a coat of arms as a mark of honour,[4][6] and in music, from 1694 in Purcell, to restate a theme with longer note values.[4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "encrease", and noted its medical use for the stage at which an inflammation is increasing.[15] The grammatical noun, the vowel prefixed to past forms of verbs in Greek and Sanskrit, appears in 1671, in Phillips's New World of Words,[4][6][10] and in surgery the noun has denoted an implant since 1982.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1400 – to make greater; to become greater.[4][2]
  • c. 1425 – noun, an increase.[4]
  • 1427 – to enrich a person (obsolete by 1704).[4]
  • 1567 – to raise in rank (obsolete by 1655).[4]
  • 1572 – in heraldry, to add a mark of honour to a coat of arms.[4]
  • 1671 – noun, in grammar, a vowel prefixed to past forms of verbs.[4][6]
  • 1694 – in music, to restate a theme in longer note values.[4]
  • 1982 – noun, in surgery, an implant.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make greater in size, number, amount or degree; to supplement: She augmented her income by tutoring at weekends.[6][16][4]
  2. To become greater; to increase.[6][16][4]
  3. (music) To widen a major or perfect interval by a semitone;[16] or to restate a theme in longer note values.[4]
  4. (heraldry) To add a mark of honour to a coat of arms.[6][4]
  5. (grammar) To add an augment to a verb form.[6][16]

Noun

  1. (grammar) A vowel prefixed to a verb, or a lengthening of its first vowel, marking past time, as in Greek and Sanskrit.[6][16][4][10]
  2. An increase.[4][10]
  3. (surgery) An implant used to repair or enlarge part of the body.[4]

Word family

  • augmentable
  • augmenter

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins