enhancement

Etymology

It is formed from English enhance + -ment.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The verb, recorded from the late 13th century as Middle English anhaunsen (“to raise, make higher”),^[2][5] comes from Anglo-Norman enhauncer, probably an altered form of Old French enhaucier (“to make greater or higher”),^{[2][3][5][7][8]} from Vulgar Latin *inaltiō (“to raise”), from Late Latin inaltō (“to raise, exalt”),^[2][7][5] built on Latin altus (“high”),^[2][7][8] from Proto-Indo-European *al- (“to grow, nourish”).^[2][7] The h of the Old French verb is often put down to the influence of Frankish *hōh (“high”),^[2][5] and the n of the Anglo-Norman one perhaps to Occitan enansar (“to promote, advance”), although the OED notes that this verb is not known in Old French.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of enhancing, or the fact of being enhanced: 1577, in a record from Oxford.^[3][5] Etymonline dates it to the 1570s and glosses it as "increase in degree or extent, augmentation".^[2]

Semantic evolution

The noun appeared as the verb's literal sense, to raise or lift up, was dying out: Ayto notes that this sense had largely gone by the end of the 16th century, leaving the figurative "augment".^[8] Johnson (1755) defined enhancement as an increase or augmentation of value, quoting Bacon on the enhancement of rents, and also as an aggravation, an increase of ill.^[6] The Shorter Oxford also records a concrete sense, something that enhances, especially an extra facility or a supplementary payment, as for evening and weekend work.^[4] In technical use the word names an induced increase in a chemical or physical property, and the accentuation of features of a sound recording.^[9]

Timeline

• 1577 – the action of enhancing; the fact of being enhanced.^[3][5]
• 1755 – Johnson's Dictionary: increase, augmentation of value; aggravation.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of enhancing, or the state of being enhanced; an improvement, intensification or augmentation: The new lighting was a real enhancement to the gallery.^[9][3][4]
2. Something that enhances, such as an added feature or facility, or a supplementary payment.^[4]
3. An induced increase in a chemical or physical property.^[9]
4. The accentuation of the tonal or positional features of a sound recording.^[9]

Related words

• enhance
• altitude
• hawser

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster