simplify

Etymology

It is borrowed from French simplifier (“to make simpler”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which the OED dates to the mid-15th century in Middle French as simplefier, first in the sense of bringing a person to a state of simplicity or purity, and to the late 15th century in the sense "to make less complex".^[2] The OED derives the French verb from simple and the suffix -ifier, and compares Medieval Latin simplificō, recorded from the 9th century;^[2] most other dictionaries derive it from that Medieval Latin verb,^{[5][6][4][7][3]} formed from Latin simplus (“simple”)^[5][6][7] or, in Etymonline and Barnhart, simplex (“simple”),^[3][4] and a form of faciō (“to make”), as in -fy.^[3][4][5] Barnhart supposes a lost Latin adjective *simplificus in between.^[4] It is related to simple.^[5][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In religious contexts, to bring the soul to a state of simplicity, unity or purity: 1609, in a translation of Benet of Canfield's Rule of Perfection (obsolete by 1759).^[2] Barnhart's first date is 1653,^[4][9] Etymonline's the 1650s,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford has a rare mid-17th-century sense, to make into a single form, unify.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense, to make something less complex or easier to do or understand, is recorded from 1750, in Nugent's translation of Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws;^[2] Etymonline dates "to make easier to do" to 1759,^[3] and Merriam-Webster gives 1759 as the first known use.^[6] The intransitive use followed in 1754, and the sense of becoming simpler in 1790.^[2] From 1767 the verb was used of making a way of life plainer or more frugal.^[2] The mathematical sense, to reduce an equation or expression to a simpler form, dates from 1796.^[2]

Timeline

• 1609 – to bring to spiritual simplicity or purity (obsolete by 1759).^[2]
• 1653 – Barnhart's first date.^[4]
• 1750 – to make less complex, or easier to do or understand.^[2]
• 1754 – intransitive, to make things simpler.^[2]
• 1767 – to make one's way of life plainer.^[2]
• 1790 – to become less complex.^[2]
• 1796 – in mathematics, to reduce an expression to a simpler form.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make something less complicated, clearer or easier: The new form simplifies the application process.^[11][6][2]
2. (mathematics) To reduce an equation, fraction or expression to a simpler form.^[11][2]
3. To make one's way of life plainer or more frugal.^[2]
4. To become simpler.^[2]

Word family

• simplification
• simplifier
• simplificative
• supersimplify
• oversimplify

Related words

• simple
• simplex
• simplicity
• -fy

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 o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins