condense

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English condensen,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French condenser,^[4][2][5][6] or in another view Middle French condenser,^[3][7][8] and directly borrowed from Latin condēnsō (“to make dense, compress, thicken”),^[4][7][9][5] from com-, perhaps here an intensive,^[4][2] and dēnsō (“to make thick”),^[4][7][2][9] from dēnsus (“thick, crowded”).^[4][7][2] The OED and the Oxford dictionaries take the Latin verb from the adjective condēnsus (“very thick”) instead,^[10][5][6] while Merriam-Webster treats that adjective as a back-formation from the verb.^[3] The origin of the Latin adjective is uncertain; it is perhaps related to Ancient Greek δασύς (dasús, “hairy”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make thicker or more compact: probably before 1425 in Barnhart,^[7] and in the early 15th century, implied in condensed, in Etymonline.^[4] The first quotation in the OED is from 1477, in Norton's Ordinall of Alchimy,^[10] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1475–85.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The OED's oldest sense is bringing the particles of a substance closer, so that they take up less space.^[10] In the 17th century it took on the specific sense of turning gas or vapour into liquid, recorded from 1662,^[10][4] and intransitively from 1655.^[10] Johnson (1755) defined it as making a body more thick, close and weighty.^[11] Newton used it, before 1727, for a thing shrinking in volume.^[10] The later technical senses concern electricity (1782, in Volta) and the focusing of light rays (1787).^[10] The transfer to language came only at the start of the 19th century: in 1803 of bringing things together in a small compass, and in 1805 of compressing thought into few words.^[10] By 1849, in Macaulay, it could mean to intensify.^[10] An adjective condense, dense, is recorded from 1610 to 1797 in the OED,^[10] but from late Middle English to the late 18th century in the Shorter Oxford.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1425 – probably, to make dense or thick.^[7] The OED's first quotation is from 1477.^[10]
• 1610 – adjective, dense (obsolete by 1797).^[10]
• 1655 – intransitive, of vapour, to become liquid.^[10]
• 1662 – to reduce gas or vapour to liquid.^[10][4]
• before 1727 – intransitive, to become dense, shrink in volume.^[10]
• 1782 – to increase an electric charge.^[10]
• 1787 – to concentrate rays of light.^[10]
• 1805 – to compress thought or writing into few words.^[10]
• 1849 – to concentrate, intensify.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make more dense or compact; to compress: The press condenses the waste into bales.^[12][3][10]
2. To shorten a piece of writing or speech; to abridge: She condensed the report to a single page.^[3][10]
3. To change, or cause to change, from a gas or vapour to a liquid or solid: Steam condensed on the window.^[12][10]
4. To become denser, more compact or more intense.^[12][3][10]
5. In chemistry, to undergo or cause to undergo condensation.^[12][3]
6. To bring rays of light to a focus.^[10]

Adjective

1. (obsolete, 1610–1797) Dense, condensed.^[10][3][5]

Word family

• condensability
• condensable
• condensate
• condensible
• recondense
• overcondense

Related words

• condenser
• condensation
• dense
• density

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins