multiplication

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English multiplicacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman multiplicacion and Middle French multiplication,^[5][3][6] and directly borrowed from Latin multiplicātiō (“increase in number or quantity”),^[5][7][8][4] a noun of action from the past participle stem of multiplicō (“to multiply, increase”).^[2][5][6] The verb, the source of multiply, is from multiplex (“having many folds, manifold”), from multus (“much, many”) and -plex (“-fold”), from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).^[2] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century, already meaning abundance, propagation, the multiplication of numbers and the increase of gold or silver by alchemy.^[9] The OED compares moltiplicazione and multiplicación.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Increase in the number of people, animals or plants, especially by breeding: before 1387, in John Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[5] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-14th century, in the sense of any increase in size, number or amount.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The general sense of increase or growth came first, and by about 1390 the word was used of increasing the quantity of anything.^[5][4] Already before 1393 John Gower used it both for the arithmetical operation and for the alchemical art of turning base metal into gold or silver;^[5][4] Etymonline also dates the arithmetical sense to the late 14th century.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it first as increasing a number by adding more of the same kind, and then as the arithmetical operation.^[10] The arithmetical sense has become the main one,^[8] while later technical senses arose in biology (1864), for a cell or organism dividing into two or more, and in botany (1849), for an increase in the number of whorls or of organs in a whorl.^[5] The word could also mean the result of a multiplication (1586) and the multiplication table (1594); before 1500 it was also used for wordiness.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1387 – increase in numbers by breeding.^[5]
• c. 1390 – increase in quantity; proliferation.^[5]
• before 1393 – the arithmetical operation, and the alchemical art of making gold or silver, in Gower.^[5][4]
• before 1500 – the use of too many words (now rare).^[5]
• 1586 – the product of a multiplication (obsolete).^[5]
• 1594 – the multiplication table (now rare).^[5]
• 1849 – in botany, increase in the number of whorls or organs.^[5]
• 1864 – in biology, asexual reproduction by fission or budding.^[5]
• 1905 – a dice game.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The arithmetical operation of finding the product of two numbers, in its simplest form by adding one number to itself as many times as the other indicates: The pupils practised multiplication with flash cards.^[11][3][5]
2. The act or process of increasing in number or amount; proliferation: the multiplication of new housing estates.^[3][5]
3. The state of being multiplied.^[3][8]
4. (biology) Reproduction, especially the asexual increase of cells or organisms by fission or budding.^[5][8]
5. (historical) In alchemy, the art of turning base metal into gold or silver.^[5][4]

Word family

• multiplicational
• nonmultiplication
• overmultiplication
• remultiplication
• multiplication sign
• multiplication table

Related words

• multi-
• multiplicand
• multiplicative
• multiplicity
• multiply
• multiple
• multiplex
• multiplier
• duplication
• complex

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f 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)
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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins