Etymologically
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multiply

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈmʌltɪplaɪ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English multiplien, also multeplien and molteplien,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French multiplier, also multeplier and mouteplier,[5][3] from Latin multiplicō (“to increase, multiply”),[5][3][6] from multiplex (“having many folds, many times as great in number”).[3][6][4] The Latin adjective is formed from multus (“much, many”) and -plex (“-fold”), which is related to plicō (“to fold”);[3][6][7] Etymonline traces -plex to Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).[3] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the early 12th century, already meaning to increase or make abundant, to multiply numbers, and in alchemy to increase the amount of gold or silver.[8][5] The OED compares Old Occitan multiplicar (1213), Italian moltiplicare and Spanish multiplicar (1246).[5] Ayto notes that the Latin formation, "many" + "fold", closely parallels the native compound manifold, and that the verb belongs to the same family as multiple, multitude and the words in multi-.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make greater in number or quantity, to increase by adding or repeating: before 1275, in the Proverbs of Alfred.[5][9] Barnhart dates the form multeplier to probably about 1150,[6] and Etymonline gives the mid-12th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive use, to become more numerous, is recorded from about 1330,[5][9] and the sense of a people or a species increasing by breeding from about 1390,[5] or from the mid-14th century in Etymonline;[3] Chaucer wrote that a man's beasts and his store "shal multiplie".[2] In 1340 the Ayenbite of Inwit already used to multiply words for being wordy.[5][9] In alchemy the verb meant to make gold or silver out of base metal, from Gower's Confessio Amantis (before 1393),[5][9] and Chaucer used it in that sense too.[10] The arithmetical sense, to find the product of numbers, is dated before 1398 by Barnhart, in Trevisa's translation of De Proprietatibus Rerum,[6] and to about 1400 by the Historical Thesaurus, both transitive and intransitive;[9] Etymonline gives the late 14th century.[3] A sense "to increase the intensity of", sometimes "to magnify optically", was used from before 1398 to 1647.[9] Johnson (1755) gave two senses: to increase in number "by generation, accumulation, or addition", and to perform arithmetical multiplication.[11]

Timeline

  • c. 1150 – multeplier, to cause to increase (Barnhart).[6]
  • before 1275 – to make greater in number or quantity.[5][9]
  • c. 1330 – intransitive, to become more numerous.[5][9]
  • 1340 – to multiply words, to be wordy.[5][9]
  • c. 1390 – of a population or species, to increase by breeding.[5][9]
  • before 1393 – in alchemy, to produce gold or silver from base metal.[5][9]
  • before 1398 – to perform arithmetical multiplication.[6][9]
  • 1881 – the adverb multiply, in more than one way.[5][12]
  • 1975 – noun, an act of multiplication performed by a computer.[12]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make or become much greater in number, amount or degree: Complaints multiplied after the price rise.[13][12][5]
  2. In mathematics, to combine two numbers by multiplication; also, without an object, to carry out this operation: Multiply the width by the height to find the area.[13][9][5]
  3. Of living things, to increase in number by breeding or reproduction.[13][5]
  4. To breed animals or propagate plants.[5][9]
  5. In alchemy, to make gold or silver out of base metal.[5][9]

Word family

  • unmultiplied
  • multipliable
  • overmultiply
  • remultiply
  • cross-multiply
  • multiplicand
  • multiplication
  • multiplier

Usage notes

The adverb multiply, pronounced /ˈmʌltɪpli/, "in more than one way, more than once", is formed from multiple and -ly and is recorded from 1881.[5][12][14] Merriam-Webster also records a computing noun multiply, an act of multiplication done by a computer, from 1975.[12]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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 g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  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. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  11. ^ 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 c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press