duplication

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English duplicacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French duplicacion,^[4][5][3] and directly borrowed from Latin duplicātiō (“a doubling”),^[4][2][6][7] a noun of action from the past participle stem of duplicō (“to double”),^[4][5][8] formed from duo (“two”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwo- (“two”), and plicō (“to fold”), from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).^[4] The French word is recorded from the 13th century.^[4][5] It is related to duplicate.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In arithmetic, multiplication by two: about 1430, in The Art of Nombryng;^[5][8] the MED quotes a treatise of about 1450 that defines it as adding a number to itself.^[2] Etymonline dates the word, as "act of doubling", to the early 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the arithmetical doubling the word widened in the late 16th century to any making of something twice over, or the repetition of an action (1590).^[5][4][7] Other learned senses followed in the 16th and 17th centuries: in anatomy a fold (1578–1748), in civil and canon law a defendant's reply to the plaintiff's replication, corresponding to the common-law rejoinder (1622), and in geometry the duplication of the cube (1656).^[5][7] Johnson (1755) gave the act of doubling, the act of folding, and a fold, quoting Hale on the duplication of the cube.^[9] The sense "a copy" is recorded from 1872,^[5][4] the ecclesiastical sense, a second celebration of mass by the same priest on the same day, from 1866,^[5][3] and the genetic sense, a doubled segment of a chromosome, from 1917.^[5][7]

Timeline

• c. 1430 – multiplication by two (obsolete by 1690).^[5][8]
• 1578 – in anatomy, a fold (obsolete by 1748).^[5][7]
• 1590 – the making of something twice over; repetition.^[5][7] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1580s.^[4]
• 1622 – in civil and canon law, a defendant's reply to a replication.^[5][7]
• 1656 – duplication of the cube, in mathematics.^[5]
• 1866 – the celebration of mass twice in one day by the same priest.^[5][7]
• 1872 – a duplicate copy.^[5][4]
• 1917 – in genetics, a doubled segment of a chromosome.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or process of duplicating or doubling something, or the state of being duplicated: The two offices share files to prevent duplication of work.^[10][3][5]
2. A copy or counterpart.^[10][3][5]
3. (genetics) A mutation in which a gene or a segment of a chromosome is present in two or more copies.^[10][5][7]
4. (mathematics) duplication of the cube: the problem of finding the side of a cube with twice the volume of a given cube.^[5][7]
5. (ecclesiastical) The celebration of mass twice on one day by the same priest.^[3][5][7]
6. (law, historical) In civil and canon law, a defendant's answer to a replication.^[3][5][7]
7. (obsolete, c. 1430–1690) Multiplication by two.^[5][7]
8. (obsolete, 1578–1748) A fold or folding.^[5][7][9]

Word family

• nonduplication
• photoduplication
• preduplication
• reduplication
• duplication of the cube

Related words

• duplicate
• double
• duplex

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins