intensify

Etymology

It is formed from English intense + -ify,^[2][3][4][5] apparently coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.^[4][6][7][2] The OED analyses it as Latin intēnsus (“intense”) with the suffix, corresponding to a Latin type *intensificō formed after sānctificō;^[8][7] intēnsus is the past participle of intendō (“to stretch out, strain”), the source of intend.^[2] In a footnote Coleridge explained that he "hazarded the word" because “to intend”, which Newton and others had used in this sense, now meant something else, although he admitted that it sounded "uncouth" to his own ear.^[8][2] Middle English used a verb intensen (“to increase, strengthen”) in the early 15th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make intense, to strengthen or heighten: 1817, in Coleridge's Biographia Literaria.^[8][2][3]

Semantic evolution

A photographic sense, to make the exposed parts of a negative denser so as to strengthen the contrast, followed in 1861.^[8][3][9] The intransitive use, to become more intense, is recorded from 1845 by Etymonline.^[2] The OED's first example is from 1853, in Charlotte Brontë's Villette.^[8] The derivative intensifier came to be used in grammar for a word that gives force or emphasis.^[4]

Timeline

• 1817 – transitive, to make intense, in Coleridge.^[8][2]
• 1845 – intransitive, to become more intense.^[2] The OED's first example is from 1853, in Charlotte Brontë.^[8]
• 1861 – photography, to increase the density of a negative.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make something more intense; to strengthen, increase or deepen: The rebels intensified their attacks on the capital.^[3][9][8]
2. To become more intense: The rain intensified overnight.^[9][8][4]
3. (photography) To increase the density and contrast of the image on a film or plate by chemical treatment.^[3][9][8]

Word family

• intensification

Related words

• intense
• intensity
• intend
• intensive

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins