extent

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪkˈstent/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English extente, borrowed from Anglo-Norman extente, estente (“valuation; stretch of land”),^[2][3][4] from Medieval Latin extenta, the feminine past participle of Latin extendere “to stretch out”,^[5][4] the source of extend.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In law, the valuation of land or property for taxation, and the value assigned: 1292 in the OED, about 1300 in Etymonline.^[6][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Rents from valued lands are from 1303,^[6] and a tax on such a valuation from 1597, obsolete.^[6] Seizure of lands under a writ is from 1592, and a writ to recover debts owed to the Crown from 1630.^[6][4] Shakespeare used it once for an attack, in Twelfth Night.^[4][6] The general meaning “the degree to which something extends, size, scope” is from the 1590s.^[2]

Timeline

• 1292 – a valuation of land.^[6]
• 1303 – rents from valued land.^[6]
• 1592 – seizure under a writ.^[6]
• 1590s – size, degree.^[2]
• 1630 – a writ of extent.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The size or area of something.
2. The degree to which something is true or happens: to some extent.
3. (law, historical) A writ allowing a creditor to take a debtor's property.

Related words

• extend
• extension
• extensive
• tend

References

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