tantamount

Etymology

The adjective comes from an obsolete noun meaning "something equivalent" (1637), which came from an obsolete verb meaning "to amount to as much" (1628),^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman tant amunter (“to amount to as much”).^{[3][4][6][7][2][8][9]} The Anglo-Norman phrase is recorded in the law reports of 1292 and 1303.^[3] It is formed from tant (“so much, as much”), from Old French tant, from Latin tantum, the neuter of tantus (“so great”), from tam (“so”),^[7][4][6][8] and amonter (“to amount to, go up”), the source of amount,^[6][7][2] which Partridge traces to amont (“upward”), from Latin ad montem (“towards the mountain”).^[10] The OED allows that in the 17th century the word may also have come from Italian tanto montare (“to amount to as much”),^[3] and Hoad, the Oxford Dictionary of English, Cresswell and the Shorter Oxford give the Italian phrase as the source;^{[11][12][13][14]} Dictionary.com gives either.^[15] The OED thinks the adjective may have been influenced by paramount.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a verb, to amount to as much or be equivalent: 1628, in Edward Coke's commentary on Littleton in his Institutes.^[3][2] The adjective is first recorded in 1641,^[3][2] in the 1640s according to Etymonline.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The verb tantamount, written by Thomas Fuller as tant-amounteth, was used until the early 18th century,^[3][9] and the noun, an equivalent, appears in 1637 and 1646.^[3] Johnson (1755) still entered it only as a noun, "equivalent", with a quotation from Locke.^[16] The OED notes that its earliest adjectival uses are hard to tell apart from the noun.^[3] At first the adjective stood alone or was followed by as or with; the construction tantamount to, the only one now current, is recorded from 1652.^[3] Collins describes it as used after the noun, followed by to.^[17]

Timeline

• 1628 – verb, to amount to as much, to be equivalent (obsolete by 1716).^[3][2]
• 1637 – noun, an equivalent (obsolete).^[3][2]
• 1641 – adjective, equivalent, used on its own in the predicate.^[3][2]
• 1644 – adjective followed by as or with (obsolete by 1697).^[3]
• 1652 – tantamount to, the current construction.^[3]
• 1659 – transitive verb, to equal (obsolete by 1683).^[3]
• 1692 – adjective used before a noun (rare).^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Equivalent in effect, value or meaning; usually followed by to: Skipping the hearing was tantamount to admitting the charge.^[4][17][3]

Noun

1. (obsolete, 1637–1646) An equivalent.^[3][16]

Verb

1. (obsolete, 1628–1716) To amount to as much; to be equivalent.^[3][14]

Related words

• amount
• paramount
• mount

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
16. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins