Etymologically
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broaden

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 23:45. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈbrɔːd(ə)n/[1]
  • US: /ˈbrɑːd(ə)n/, /ˈbrɔːd(ə)n/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English broad + -en.[2][3][4][5] The OED compares older verbs of similar meaning and the earlier widen.[2] The adjective is from Old English brād,[6][3] from Proto-Germanic *braidaz, which has no known relatives outside Germanic.[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To become broader: 1684, in Samuel Pordage's translation of Thomas Willis.[2] Etymonline dates the verb to 1726 ("make broad") and 1727 ("grow broad") and remarks that it seems no older than that;[3] Merriam-Webster also has 1727.[8]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) entered to broaden only as an intransitive verb, "to grow broad", with one quotation from James Thomson's Summer, "Low walks the sun, and broadens by degrees", and wrote that he did not know whether the word occurred anywhere else.[5][3] The transitive sense, to make broader, is recorded in 1744, again in Thomson.[2] From the late 18th century the verb was used of abstract things, to make more inclusive or general (1776);[2] from 1825 it was also used intransitively of the mind or outlook, to grow wider in range.[2] Of light or the day it meant to grow brighter (1822), and of a vowel or an accent to become broader or more regional (1844).[2] The noun broadening is recorded from 1835.[3]

Timeline

  • 1684 – intransitive, to become broader.[2]
  • 1744 – transitive, to make broader, in Thomson's Winter.[2]
  • 1776 – to make something abstract more inclusive or general.[2]
  • 1822 – of light or the day, to grow brighter.[2]
  • 1825 – to become more wide-ranging; of the mind, to grow more open.[2]
  • 1835 – the noun broadening.[3]
  • 1844 – of a vowel or an accent, to become broader.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To become broad or broader; to widen: The river broadens below the bridge.[8][9][2]
  2. To make broad or broader.[8][9][2]
  3. To make more inclusive or wide-ranging; to extend: The course broadened her interests.[8][2]
  4. To become more inclusive or general; of the mind or outlook, to grow more open.[2]
  5. Of light or the day, to grow brighter.[2]
  6. Of a vowel, or of a person's accent, to become broader or more regional.[2]

Word family

  • broadener
  • overbroaden
  • unbroadened

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 r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins