Etymologically
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extension

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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

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