largess

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English largesse,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French largesse, also largece and largesce,^[5][6][7] formed from large (“generous”) and the suffix -esse.^[5][7][8] Large itself goes back to Latin largus (“abundant, large, liberal”).^[6][2][9] Etymonline and Klein derive the French noun instead from Vulgar Latin *largitia (“abundance”),^[6][10] and Onions likewise sets up a Romance *largitia.^[11] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the early 12th century, with the senses of width as well as of generosity, magnanimity and liberty.^[12] The same formation gave Spanish largueza, Portuguese largueza and Italian larghezza, all recorded from the 13th century.^[5][6] Long before the borrowing, an Old English homily of Ælfric named the virtue with the Latin largitas, explained as Old English cystignes.^[5] Chambers adds Latin largitio (“a lavish giving”) as a second source.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Willingness to give or spend freely; generosity as a virtue: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[5][8] Barnhart dates this record probably before 1200,^[8] Etymonline about 1200,^[6] and Dictionary.com places the word between 1175 and 1225.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the virtue itself, which Middle English writers sometimes personified.^[5][15] In medieval theology it was the virtue opposed to avarice, whose excess was prodigality.^[6] From before 1325 it was also used of the gifts themselves, such as a gratuity given at harvest time, and since Gower's Confessio Amantis (before 1393) also of the lavish bestowal of gifts by a person of high rank on a special occasion.^[5] Chaucer used it five times and Gower 29 times, for generosity and for a generous gift.^[15] Gower also has the cry largesse!, a call for money addressed to a person of rank at a coronation, a harvest or another festive occasion;^[5] in English dialects the word was still used in the 19th century for the money that reapers asked for at the end of harvest, and in west Yorkshire it was cried by men going from house to house on Plough Monday.^[16] The phrase to make largesse follows Anglo-Norman faire sa largesce.^[5] From Lydgate (about 1425) the word was extended to any abundance regarded as freely given,^[5] and between 1487 and 1765 it could also mean freedom or liberty, especially in at one's largesse.^[5][17] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a present, gift or bounty, quoting Shakespeare and Bacon.^[18] Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that the giving is often marked by condescension from a superior to an inferior,^[7] and the American Heritage Dictionary likewise speaks of a lofty or condescending manner.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – willingness to spend freely; generosity as a virtue.^[5][8]
• before 1325 – an act of generous giving; a gift of money, as a gratuity at harvest.^[5]
• before 1393 – liberal bestowal of gifts by a person of rank; also the cry largesse! asking for such a gift, in Gower.^[5]
• c. 1425 – abundance of something regarded as freely bestowed, in Lydgate.^[5]
• 1487 – freedom, liberty, as in at one's largesse (obsolete by 1765).^[5][17]

Meanings

Noun

1. Generous giving of gifts or money, especially by a person of high rank or in a condescending manner: The duke's largess was meant to win the town's loyalty.^[7][20][19]
2. The gifts or money given in this way.^[20][19][7]
3. Generosity of spirit or attitude.^[20][19]
4. A cry asking for a gift of money, addressed to a person of rank on a festive occasion or, in English dialects, by harvest workers.^[5][16]

Related words

• large
• enlarge

Usage notes

The word is spelled both largess and largesse.^[20][7] The revised OED, Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford enter it as largesse,^[5][6][9] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate gives largesse with largess as a variant,^[21] while Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Barnhart enter largess first;^[7][22] Collins gives both.^[20] The stress now falls on the second syllable,^[5][20] but the first edition of the OED (1902) stressed the first, and Merriam-Webster Unabridged still records that pronunciation as a variant.^[5][7] In dialect the word took forms such as larges, largus and larjus.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Onions, C. T., ed. (1966), The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
20. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
21. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
22. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins