Etymologically
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simplify

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈsɪmplɪfaɪ/, /ˈsɪmpləfaɪ/[1]

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

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