immensity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English immensite, also inmensite,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French immensité or directly borrowed from Latin immēnsitās (“immeasurableness”).^{[4][5][6][3][7]} The Middle English Dictionary gives only the Latin source,^[2] and Klein and Johnson only the French.^[8][9] The French word is recorded from the 14th century.^[4][5] The Latin noun is from immēnsus (“immeasurable, boundless”),^[4][5][3] the source of immense, which is formed from in- (“not”) and mēnsus (“measured”), past participle of mētior (“to measure”),^[5] and Watkins, as cited by Etymonline, traces this to Proto-Indo-European *me- (“to measure”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of being immeasurable; infinity: about 1440, in the Middle English Palladius.^[2] The OED's first record is the Mirour Saluacioun of about 1450,^[4] and Etymonline likewise gives the mid 15th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant boundlessness, and Donne used it before 1631 for infinite being or infinite space.^[4] Johnson (1755) still defined it as "unbounded greatness; infinity", quoting Locke on the idea of space.^[9] From 1652 it also meant simple vastness or hugeness.^[4] A huge amount is recorded in Fanny Burney's journal of 1778,^[4] a sense Collins labels informal.^[10] Later uses count as things rather than qualities: an immense extent from 1797, and immense beings or things in the plural from 1839.^[4] The adjective immense was itself a vogue word in the 18th century.^[5] The synonym immenseness dates from about 1600.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – the quality of being immeasurable; infinity.^[2] The OED's first record is from about 1450.^[4]
• before 1631 – infinite being or existence; infinite space.^[4]
• 1652 – vast size, hugeness.^[4]
• 1778 – an immense quantity.^[4]
• 1797 – an immense extent of something.^[4]
• 1839 – plural, immense or infinite beings or things.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of being immense; vast or boundless size or degree: The immensity of the task kept her awake.^[10][3][4]
2. An enormous expanse or extent: the immensity of the desert.^[10][4]
3. Something immense; infinite being, existence or space.^[3][4]
4. (informal) A huge amount.^[10][4]

Word family

• immenseness

Related words

• immense

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins