Etymologically
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quantify

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkwɒn.tɪˌfaɪ/[1]
  • US: /ˈkwɑn.tɪˌfaɪ/, /ˈkwɑn.təˌfaɪ/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin quantificō (“to determine the quantity of, measure”),[2][3][4][5] recorded from the 12th century in British sources,[2] from Latin quantus (“how great, how much”) and -ficō, the combining form of faciō (“to make”).[2][6][5] Barnhart derives the Latin verb from a lost adjective *quantificus.[7] The OED compares the earlier English adjective quantified, "endowed with quantity" (1591).[2] Quantus is also the source of quantity and quantum.[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To measure or determine the quantity of: 1627, in P. Forbes's Eubulus.[2][5] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date the verb to the mid-16th century, with the sense "to endow with quantity", now rare.[4][9]

Semantic evolution

In logic, the verb has meant since 1847 to give a term or proposition universal or particular quantity, and now usually to act as a quantifier that binds a variable.[2] Etymonline and Barnhart date the word itself from this logical use, about 1840, and Etymonline dates the "literal" sense of measuring only by 1878;[6][7] the OED's revised entry has the measuring sense more than two centuries earlier.[2] Barnhart dates quantification to about 1840, probably formed on the analogy of qualify and qualification.[7]

Timeline

  • 1591 – the earlier adjective quantified, having physical magnitude.[2]
  • 1627 – to measure, determine the quantity of.[2][5]
  • c. 1840 – quantification.[7]
  • 1847 – in logic, to ascribe universal or particular quantity to a term.[2] Etymonline and Barnhart date the logical sense about 1840.[6][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To determine or measure the amount of something; to express it in numbers: It is hard to quantify the damage the flood caused.[10][5][2]
  2. (logic) To specify the quantity of a term in a proposition by a quantifier such as all or some.[10][5][2]
  3. (logic) To bind a variable by prefixing a quantifier.[5][2]

Word family

  • quantifiable
  • quantifier
  • quantifiably
  • quantification

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  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 f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins