extension

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪkˈsten.ʃən/, /ekˈsten.ʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English extensioun, borrowed from Middle French extension or directly from Late Latin extēnsiō (“a stretching out”),^[2][3] a noun of action from the past participle of Latin extendere “to stretch out”, the source of extend.^[3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Swelling, distension: about 1400.^[3][6] The Shorter Oxford dates the stretching out of the body or a limb to late Middle English.^[5]

Semantic evolution

An increase in scope or range is from the late 16th century,^[5] and the property of occupying space, in physics and philosophy, from the early 17th.^[5] Extra time allowed for something is from the mid-17th century.^[5] University extension, extramural teaching, is from the mid-19th century.^[5] A part added to something, such as a railway, is from 1852,^[3] and an extra telephone line from 1906.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – swelling.^[3][6]
• late 16th century – increase in scope.^[5]
• mid-17th century – extra time.^[5]
• 1852 – an added part.^[3]
• 1906 – a telephone extension.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The act of making something longer, larger or wider.
2. A room or rooms added to a building.
3. Extra time allowed for something: an extension to a deadline.
4. An additional telephone connected to the same line, or its number.
5. The range to which something extends.
6. (medicine) The straightening of a limb.

Word family

• extensional
• extensionality
• extensionally
• extensionless
• nonextension
• superextension
• hyperextension
• simple extension

Related words

• extend
• extent
• intension
• comprehension
• extensive

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press