populous

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English populous,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin populōsus (“full of people”),^{[5][6][7][8][9]} formed from populus (“people”) and the suffix -ōsus.^[5][8] The OED treats the source as classical Latin, recorded in the 2nd century AD in Apuleius,^[5] while Etymonline calls it post-classical and Collins, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford Late Latin.^{[6][10][11][12]} Barnhart calls it a learned borrowing.^[3] The OED compares Middle French populeux, Spanish populoso (1490) and Italian populoso (before 1396), and notes that some early English spellings were altered after people.^[5] The Latin noun is also the source of popular.^[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having many inhabitants, densely populated: about 1425, in the Middle English Book of the Foundation of Saint Bartholomew's, of a city.^[5][2] Barnhart also cites the spelling populus from 1439.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed close to the Latin.^[5] From 1548 the word also meant numerous or abundant, without reference to a place,^[5] and by 1654 it was extended to animals.^[5] Two senses did not last: from 1657 to 1851 it meant current among the general public, much like popular, in later use only in poetry, and around 1789–1820 a season could be called populous, that is productive or prolific.^[5] In French, the related populeux first meant, in 1394, a woman who bore many children, and only from 1491 full of people.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "full of people; numerously inhabited", quoting Shakespeare and Milton.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – full of people, densely populated.^[5][2][3]
• 1439 – spelled populus.^[7][2]
• 1548 – numerous, abundant.^[5]
• 1654 – extended to animals.^[5]
• 1657 – current among the general public (obsolete by 1851).^[5]
• c. 1789 – of a season, productive (obsolete by 1820).^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having many inhabitants; densely populated: Lagos is a populous city.^[10][8][5]
2. Large in number; numerous.^[8][5]

Word family

• populously
• populousness
• overpopulous
• unpopulous

Related words

• people
• popular
• population
• populace

References

1. ^ a b 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 Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.