infinitive

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English infinitif, first an adjective,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French infinitif^[3][2] and directly borrowed from Late Latin īnfīnītīvus (“unlimited, indefinite, infinitive”).^{[3][2][5][6][7]} The Latin adjective is taken from īnfīnītus (“not limited”), the source of infinite, by Etymonline, Merriam-Webster, Barnhart and Klein,^[4][6][5][7] and analysed by the OED, the Shorter Oxford and Dictionary.com as in- added to fīnītīvus (“defining, definite”).^[8][9][10] The noun, recorded from the 16th century, may have been influenced by Middle French infinitif,^[5] or may have grown out of the adjective.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a verb's mood: about 1450, in the Battlefield Grammar, as infinityf, in a list of the moods.^[2][5] The OED records this grammatical adjective from 1520, in Whittington's Vulgaria, with only an uncertain earlier use for "infinite" about 1470.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English as a term of Latin grammar, and it means "indefinite" because the form is not restricted by person or number.^[4] As a noun it was in use by the time of Palsgrave's French grammar of 1530,^[8][5][6] though Etymonline dates the noun to the 1510s.^[4] A few writers also tried it in the etymological sense, "endless": Hardyng about 1470 and Markham in 1595, for an endless amount.^[8] Johnson (1755) entered it only as an adjective, quoting a Latin grammar.^[11] Its modern definitions keep the original idea, a verb form without inflection for tense or person or without an overt subject,^[12] with English usually adding to.^[12][3][6]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – adjective, of the mood of a verb.^[2][5] The OED first records this sense in 1520.^[8]
• c. 1470 – perhaps "infinite, endless", as an adverb, in Hardyng (obsolete, rare).^[8]
• 1530 – noun, the infinitive mood or form of a verb, in Palsgrave.^[8][5][6] Etymonline dates the noun to the 1510s.^[4]
• 1595 – an infinite or endless amount, in Markham (obsolete).^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (grammar) The form of a verb that is not inflected for tense or person, used without an overt subject and in English usually preceded by to, as to swim in They like to swim.^{[12][3][6][8]}

Adjective

1. (grammar) Of, or formed with, this verb form: an infinitive phrase.^[6][5][8]

Word family

• infinitively
• infinitival
• split infinitive

Related words

• infinite
• finite

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins