more

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English more, earlier mare,^[2][3] inherited from Old English māra (“greater, more, stronger, mightier”),^[4][2][5] used as the comparative of micel (“great”), the source of mickle and much.^[4][2] The Old English word goes back to Proto-Germanic *maizô (“more”),^[1][6] a form that Barnhart writes *maizōn and Etymonline *maiz,^[2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *meis-,^[4][7] which is perhaps from a root *me- (“big”).^[4][2] Cognates include Old Frisian māra, Old Saxon mēro, Middle Dutch mēre, Old High German mēro, Old Norse meiri and Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌶𐌰 (maiza),^[8][2] with Dutch meer and German mehr,^[2][9] and further Old Irish mór (“great”) and Welsh mawr (“great”).^[4][3] Ayto takes the same base to underlie Latin magis (“more”) and magnus (“large”), the sources of master and magnitude.^[7] Old English generally used the related mā as adverb and noun.^[4][8] It became mo, whose uses this word later took over.^[4][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Greater or more: Barnhart dates Old English māra to before 725,^[2] and the OED's first record, of something greater in size, is in King Ælfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.^[8] As Middle English mare the adjective appears about 1125.^[2]

Semantic evolution

At first the word was above all the comparative of great: larger in size (until 1887 in the OED), and greater in power or importance (until 1530).^[8] In names of places, plants and churches it meant the larger or chief of two, until 1642.^[8] Johnson (1755) marked "greater" as now out of use,^[11] and today this sense survives in more's the pity and the more fool you.^[12][8] As the comparative of much, greater in quantity, the word is recorded from Old English in the OED,^[8] though Hoad dates this use to the 14th century, and the use as a comparative of many, with a plural noun, to the 16th.^[12] The sense "additional" is also old, with plural nouns from Old English and with singular nouns from about 1300.^[8] The neuter was rare as a noun and an adverb in Old English,^[8][4] but it spread in later Middle English at the expense of mo.^[4] From before 1225 the adverb formed comparatives of adjectives and adverbs.^[8] From about 1225 it did so even for words that have a comparative in -er.^[8] More or less meant "in a greater or lesser degree" from the early 13th century, and "approximately" later on.^[8][4] Later phrases include more where that came from (1810), more like (1902) and more of the same (1971).^[8] In Scotland and northern England the word is mair, and dialects have phrases such as more nor a bit, a good deal.^[13]

Timeline

• before 725 – Old English māra, greater or more.^[2]
• c. 1125 – the Middle English form mare, with more following before 1250.^[2]
• c. 1175 – more and more, to an increasing extent.^[8]
• before 1225 – the adverb forming comparatives.^[8]
• c. 1225 – more or less, in a greater or lesser degree.^[8][4]
• c. 1300 – with a singular noun, additional, further.^[8]
• c. 1390 – before a noun, a greater number of.^[8]
• late 14th century – the more the merrier, as þe mo þe myryer.^[4]
• 1545 – more or less, approximately.^[8] Etymonline dates this use to the 1580s.^[4]
• 1810 – more where that came from.^[8]
• 1971 – more of the same.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Greater in amount, number or degree; the comparative of much and many: more rain than last spring.^[14][15][8]
2. Additional, further: We need two more chairs.^[14][15][8]
3. (obsolete, Old English–1887) Greater in size; larger.^[8][11]

Pronoun

1. A greater amount or number: She earns more than I do.^[14][15][8]
2. An additional amount or number: We won't need any more.^[14][15][8]
3. Something of greater importance: There is more to this job than money.^[15][8]

Adverb

1. To a greater degree or extent: He reads more than he writes.^[14][15][8]
2. Used to form the comparative of adjectives and adverbs: more careful, more slowly.^[14][8]
3. Again, in addition; longer: Try once more.^[15][8]
4. more or less: approximately; to some degree.^[8][4]

Word family

• moreness
• more or less

Related words

• most
• mo
• moreover
• mickle
• master
• magnitude

Usage notes

The spelling also stands for a separate dialect noun, more, a root or tree stump, from Old English more (“carrot, parsnip”),^[8][15][13] and for the Latin ablative in phrases such as more majorum, in the traditional manner.^[8][16] Skeat and Weekley note that in Middle English, as in Chaucer, mo was the word for number and more the word for size or extent.^[10][17]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b 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)
14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray