large

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /lɑːdʒ/, US /lɑːrdʒ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English large, borrowed from Old French large (“broad, wide; generous”),^[2][3][4] from Latin largus (“abundant, copious; generous”),^[2][3][5] through its feminine form larga.^[6][4] The Latin word is of unknown origin,^[2] though Barnhart thinks it may be related to lārdum (“lard”).^[3] It is also the source of Spanish largo (“long”) and Italian largo (“wide”),^[2] and English has largess from the same base and largo from Italian.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Liberal in giving, generous, open-handed: about 1175 according to the OED,^[8] or probably before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle, where it also meant abundant, ample and roomy.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The early senses were moral and quantitative: “generous, lavish” and “ample in quantity, abundant”, the second now obsolete.^[8][4] “Spacious, roomy” is recorded from before 1225.^[8] The sense “wide in range, extensive” appears before 1325 in the Cursor Mundi,^[3] and in reference to speech or writing, “drawn-out, detailed”, from the early 14th century.^[2] “Broad”, now the usual sense of French large, was used in English from 1377.^[8] The general meaning “big” is found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (about 1385),^[3] and Hoad dates the sense “great, big” to the 15th century.^[7] The OED notes that in modern English large is the general word for considerable size, used instead of great when the emotional overtones of that word are not wanted.^[2] The noun, “liberality”, is late 14th century, and survives in at large, “free, not confined”;^[2] at large “in general” dates from the 1620s, and of electors chosen by a whole state from 1741 in American English.^[2] Sailors have said that the wind “larges”, becomes favourable, since 1622.^[8] Large-minded is from 1725, larger-than-life from 1840, and living large from 1994 in African-American English.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – generous, open-handed.^[8]
• before 1225 – ample in quantity; spacious.^[8]
• before 1325 – wide in range (Cursor Mundi).^[3]
• 1377 – broad.^[8]
• c. 1385 – big (Chaucer).^[3]
• late 14th century – at large, at liberty.^[2]
• 1622 – verb, of the wind: to become favourable.^[8]
• 1725 – large-minded.^[2]
• 1840 – larger-than-life.^[2]
• 1887 – large-scale.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Greater than average in size, amount, number or extent; big.
2. Of wide scope or capacity; comprehensive.
3. Broad-minded and tolerant; liberal.
4. (nautical) Of a wind: favourable, blowing from abaft the beam.

Noun

1. (in at large) Free, not in confinement; also, as a whole, in general.

Adverb

1. (nautical) Before the wind.

Word family

• largeness
• largish
• overlarge
• ultralarge
• enlarge
• large-hearted
• largely
• large-minded

Related words

• largess
• largo
• great
• big

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary groups large, big and great as words for things notably above average in size or degree.^[9]

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 i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin