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intensification

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Etymology and origin of the English word intensification

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1835 More words from the 19th century
Ultimate origin
Latin intendō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English intense
English intensify
English intensification
From the same root
English intensity ← intense

Pronunciation

  • /ɪnˌtentsɪfɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/, /ɪnˌtensɪfɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/[1]

Etymology

It is the noun of action from English intensify + -fication.[2][3][4][5] Intensify was first recorded in 1817 in Coleridge, formed from intense and -ify,[4][2] the OED comparing a Latin type *intensificāre modelled on sanctificāre.[2] Intense is from French intense, from Latin intēnsus (“stretched, strained, tight”), the past participle of intendō (“to stretch out”).[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of making something more intense: 1835 in Etymonline.[4] The OED's first quotation is from 1864, in The Reader,[2] and the 1989 edition of the OED dated it to 1847.[6]

Semantic evolution

The noun follows its verb, which Coleridge introduced because intend, used in this sense by Newton, had come to mean something else.[4][2] From 1879 it was a term of photography for thickening a negative to make it more opaque,[2][3] a use that follows the verb's photographic sense of 1861.[2]

Timeline

  • 1835 – the action of making something more intense.[4] The OED's first quotation is from 1864.[2]
  • 1879 – in photography, the thickening of a negative.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act, process or result of intensifying: an intensification of the fighting near the border.[7][3][2]
  2. (photography) The process of making a negative denser or more opaque to increase its contrast.[3][2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Intensification.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/intensification. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·