magnate

Etymology

It is first found as inherited from Middle English magnates, only in the plural,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Late Latin magnās (“great person, nobleman”), usually found in the plural magnātēs,^[5][6][7][8] or magnātus (“great man”).^[5][2] Both are from Latin magnus (“great”),^[5][2][7] from Proto-Indo-European *meg- (“great”).^[7][9] The plural form was modelled on Ancient Greek μεγιστᾶνες (megistânes), which it often translates.^[5] It occurs in the Vulgate,^[5] and Barnhart suggests that it may have entered Middle English through Church Latin, citing “Audite me, magnates” in Ecclesiasticus 33:18.^[6] The Latin word is frequent in British sources from the 10th century.^[5] Early English examples may be Latin plurals, as Hoad says they were until the 18th or 19th century;^[4][5] the OED sees the plural treated as English by 1654,^[5] and Collins and Dictionary.com take the singular as a back-formation from it.^[10][11] The Shorter Oxford allows for some influence of French magnat in the 18th century.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A great or noble person: probably before 1439, in Lydgate's Fall of Princes, in the plural.^[5][6] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word was rare before the late 18th century,^[12] and at first meant a noble or high official.^[7][5] The Polish and Hungarian use, for a rich nobleman sitting in the upper house of the Diet, is recorded in English from 1797 and follows the administrative Latin of those countries.^[5] The word could later be applied to things, as in 1851.^[5] The general sense of a wealthy or influential person now applies especially to leaders of business.^[5][12] The OED records this application to industrialists in isolated use in French in the late 18th century, and thinks later French use probably follows English.^[5] Italian has it from the mid-19th century and German from the 20th.^[5]

Timeline

• probably before 1439 – magnates, great or noble persons.^[5][6]
• 1654 – the plural Magnates treated as an English word, set beside Magnetes.^[5]
• 1797 – a nobleman in the upper house of the Diet in Hungary and Poland.^[5]
• 1851 – applied to things.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person of great power and wealth, especially in industry or business: an oil magnate.^[10][3][12]
2. (historical) A great nobleman or person of high rank.^[10][3][5]
3. (historical) A member of the upper house of the diet in Hungary or Poland.^[10][5][12]

Word family

• magnateship

Related words

• magnet
• magnitude
• magnanimous
• magnificat
• mega-
• much

Usage notes

The OED notes that pronunciations with a final /ət/ make the word sound like magnet for many speakers, and that 20th-century usage guides record magnet occasionally written for magnate.^[5] Dictionary.com also lists the two as easily confused.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press