plentiful

Etymology

It is formed from English plenty + -ful,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} first recorded as plenteful, also plentiful.^[5][3] The base is from Old French plenté, also plentet,^[2][3] from Latin plēnitās (“fullness”),^[2][3] from plēnus (“full”),^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *pele- (“to fill”).^[3] The older adjective plenteous is from Old French plentivos and has no -ful.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Present in full supply, abundant: before 1400, in a religious lyric printed by C. Brown.^[2] The Middle English Dictionary has the word from the same date, in a Middle English prose psalter,^[5] and Etymonline dates plenteful to about 1400.^[3] Dictionary.com gives 1425–75 and Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 15th century.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The two main senses are both recorded from the start: of a thing, existing in plenty, and of a place or source, yielding plenty.^[2][4] From before 1475 until 1718 the word could also describe a person as liberal or generous,^[2] and Johnson (1755) quotes Bacon's "He that is plentiful in expences" while defining the word as "copious; abundant; exuberant; fruitful".^[8] A use as an adverb, "plentifully", is recorded only in 1563.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1400 – present in plenty, abundant, copious.^[2][5]
• before 1400 – rich, fertile, yielding an abundance, in a Middle English psalter.^[2]
• before 1475 – liberal, generous (obsolete by 1718).^[2]
• 1563 – as an adverb, plentifully (rare and obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Existing in large supply; abundant, ample: Wild berries were plentiful along the river that summer.^[9][7][2]
2. Yielding or containing an abundance; fruitful, productive: a plentiful valley.^[9][7][2]

Word family

• plentifully
• plentifulness
• overplentiful
• unplentiful

Related words

• plenteous
• plenty
• plenitude

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ 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)
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins