verbose

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin verbōsus (“containing many words, long-winded”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from verbum (“word”) and -ōsus,^[2][6][7] the source of the English suffix -ose.^[2][8] Etymonline traces the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *were- (“to speak”),^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Barnhart refer it to word.^[5][8] The OED compares Old French verbos, recorded before 1200, as well as French verbeux, Spanish verboso, Portuguese verboso and Italian verboso.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary sets up Middle English *verbous,^[4] a form implied by the adverb recorded around 1400.^[8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Using too many words, of a person: about 1530, in Dialoges of Creatures Moralysed, a date from the OED's revision of 2018.^[2] Earlier dictionaries begin the word in the later 17th century: 1665 to 1675 in Dictionary.com,^[6] the 1670s in Etymonline,^[3] and 1672 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[5] The adverb is older, recorded as verbousli about 1400 in Etymonline and before 1425 in the OED.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

After its use for people, the adjective is recorded of a text or passage from 1665, in Stillingfleet.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "exuberant in words; prolix; tedious by multiplicity of words", with a quotation from Prior.^[9] The noun verbosity came earlier than most dictionaries' date for the adjective, in Udall's translation of Erasmus's Apothegms of 1542.^[8] Weekley recalled Disraeli's remark that Gladstone was "intoxicated with the exuberance of his own verbosity".^[10] Cowper used verbose as an adverb in his Odyssey of 1791, a rare use that did not last.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1530 – of a person, using too many words.^[2]
• 1665 – of a text or passage, expressed in too many words.^[2]
• 1791 – adverb, in a wordy manner (now obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person, using more words than necessary; long-winded: a verbose lecturer who never kept to time.^[5][2]
2. Of speech or writing, containing more words than necessary; wordy or prolix, often to the point of being boring: a verbose report.^[11][5][2]

Word family

• verbosely
• verboseness
• verbosity
• unverbose

Related words

• verb
• verbal
• word
• adverb
• proverb

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 c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins