finite

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fīnītus (“limited, bounded, finished”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the past participle of fīniō (“to limit, set bounds; to end”),^[2][3][7] from fīnis (“end, limit”).^[2][5] Middle English had it as finit.^[5][7] The same Latin verb is the source of finish, and the noun of final and fine.^[4][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Limited in space or time: 1410 according to Barnhart,^[4] the early 15th century according to Etymonline and Merriam-Webster.^[3][7] The OED's earliest record, from about 1400, uses the word in error for infinite,^[2] and its first quotation for the obsolete sense "fixed, definite" is from 1493.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The core sense, having bounds or limits as opposed to infinite, is quoted in the OED from 1587,^[2][10] and Johnson (1755) glossed it as limited, bounded, terminated.^[11] Mathematicians used it from 1570, in Billingsley's translation of Euclid, for a quantity that is neither infinite nor infinitesimal.^[2] In theology and philosophy it came to describe beings whose existence is subject to limits, as in George Herbert (1633),^[2] and the finite became a noun for all that is finite by about 1832.^[2] In grammar, a finite verb is one limited by person and number, as against an infinitive: this use dates from 1795, in Lindley Murray's English Grammar,^[2] and finite alone was used as a noun for such a verb by 1924.^[2] A verb finite, to make finite, is recorded from 1628 but is rare.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 1410 – limited in space or time (Barnhart).^[4]
• 1493 – fixed, definite (obsolete).^[2]
• 1570 – (mathematics) neither infinite nor infinitesimal.^[2]
• 1587 – having limits; opposed to infinite.^[2]
• 1628 – the rare verb, to make finite.^[2]
• 1633 – of a being whose existence is limited.^[2]
• 1795 – (grammar) of a verb, limited by person and number.^[2]
• 1924 – (grammar) the noun, a finite verb.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Having limits or bounds; not infinite: Earth's supply of fresh water is finite.
2. (mathematics) Of a number or set: able to be counted to an end; neither infinite nor infinitesimal.
3. (grammar) Of a verb form: showing tense, person and number, as opposed to an infinitive or participle.

Noun

1. A finite thing or being. Also the finite: whatever is finite.

Word family

• finitely
• finiteness
• finite-dimensional
• nonfinite
• superfinite
• unfinite
• finite difference
• finite clause

Related words

• finis
• finitude
• finite verb
• infinite
• infinitude
• transfinite
• finish
• final
• fine
• define
• confine

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press