magnification

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English magnificacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Late Latin magnificātiō (“praise”),^[4][5][6][7] also used for the condition of being enlarged in Guy de Chauliac's surgery of 1363.^[4] Etymonline gives Old French magnificacion as a second source;^[3] the OED compares the Old and Middle French word, meaning praise or glorification, from the late 12th century,^[4] and the Shorter Oxford takes the word as partly formed in English from magnify.^[8] The Latin noun is from magnificō (“to esteem greatly, extol”),^[4][3][6] from magnificus (“great, noble; literally doing great deeds”), from magnus (“great”) and faciō (“to make, do”),^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *meg- (“great”) and Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Enlargement, in surgery: before 1425, in an English translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, of swelling of the tonsils.^[4][2] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, physical enlargement, soon became obsolete.^[4] From the 15th century the word also meant the praising or glorifying of someone, as in the Speculum Sacerdotale, and later exaggeration; the OED records this until 1899,^[4][2] and the 1989 edition dated it from 1625,^[9] like Dictionary.com's 1615–25.^[7] The optical sense, the apparent enlargement of an object seen through a lens, appears in 1672, in a letter of James Gregory, and became the main meaning, with the technical sense of the ratio between the size of an image and of the object.^[4][5] From Coleridge (before 1834) the word was also used for the enlargement of an idea or event, and for a magnified copy,^[4][8] and in the 1930s for the amplification of an electric current, a sense now disused.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1425 – the condition of being enlarged, in surgery (obsolete).^[4][2]
• before 1500 – praise, glorification; later exaggeration (obsolete by 1899).^[4][2]
• 1672 – the apparent enlargement of an object seen through a lens; the ratio of image to object.^[4]
• before 1834 – the enlargement of an idea or event; a magnified copy.^[4][8]
• 1934 – amplification of an electric current (now disused).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of magnifying, or the state of being magnified.^[10][11][5]
2. The apparent enlargement of an object by a lens, microscope or other optical instrument; the degree of it, given as the ratio of the size of the image to that of the object: Under ten times magnification the crystals looked like ice.^{[10][11][5][4]}
3. A magnified copy, photograph or drawing of something.^[10][11][4]
4. Praise or glorification; exaggeration.^[5][4] The OED marks this sense obsolete.^[4]

Word family

• biomagnification
• overmagnification

Related words

• magnify
• magnificent
• magnitude
• Magnificat
• magnate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins