Etymologically
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intense

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɪnˈtens/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French intense and directly from Latin intēnsus (“stretched, strained, tight”),[2][3][4] the past participle of intendere (“to stretch out, strain”).[3][2] See intend.[3][2] The OED notes that Latin had already split the two past participles: intēnsus kept the physical sense “stretched”, while intentus came to mean mentally stretched, eager, which gave intent.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a quality or condition, very great or strong: about 1400 in the OED, before 1425 in Barnhart, the early 15th century in Etymonline.[5][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Of mental action, strained or strenuous, is from 1645.[5] Of persons, feeling deeply or highly strung, is from 1640 in the OED and the 1630s in Etymonline.[5][3] Of a thing with a quality in a very high degree, as an intense colour, it is from 1653.[5] Intensity is from 1665, in Boyle, and intensify from 1817, in Coleridge.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – very great, extreme.[5]
  • 1640 – of persons, feeling deeply.[5]
  • 1665 – intensity.[2]
  • 1817 – intensify.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Very great or strong; extreme: intense heat.
  2. Showing strong feelings or great effort.
  3. Having or showing deep, serious feelings: an intense young man.

Word family

  • intensely
  • intenseness
  • hyperintense
  • overintense
  • superintense
  • intensify
  • intensity
  • intensifier
  • intensive
  • intend
  • intent
  • tense

Usage notes

Intense and intensive overlap, but intense tends to describe a strength that comes from within, as in intense pleasure, and intensive one imposed from outside, as in intensive training.[6] Collins notes that intense is sometimes wrongly used for intensive (intensive cultivation), and intensely for intently.[7]

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 f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins