amplificar

Forms

amplificar (first-person singular present amplifico, first-person singular preterite amplifiqué, past participle amplificado)^[1] Old forms include anplificar and amplifficar.^[2] Latin charters have the Romance-coloured spellings amplifigare (Sahagún, 987), ampliuigare (León, 1035) and amplivicabit (Oviedo, 1048).^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin amplificō (“to enlarge, increase; to amplify”).^[3][1][4] The Latin verb is formed on amplus (“large, ample”) with -ficō, from faciō (“to make”).^[1][5] Wiktionary also analyses the Spanish word as amplio + -ificar.^[1] The BDELC lists it under ancho, the popular word from the same Latin adjective.^[4]

Latin charters of León and Asturias already have Romance-coloured spellings of the word from 987 on.^[2] De Vaan connects the adjective with the root Proto-Indo-European *h₃emh₃- (“to grab”), but this requires a change /ml/ > /mpl/ that he finds hard to explain.^[6] Wiktionary calls the origin disputed.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the translation of Orosius made for Juan Fernández de Heredia between 1376 and 1396: Caesar was studiando de nudrir et de amplificar la republica “striving to nourish and enlarge the republic”.^[7][8] The BDELC dates it to 1495.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th to 17th centuries it meant to increase the size or importance of something, an empire, a name, the glory of God.^[2] Nebrija's grammar of 1492 already uses it in the rhetorical sense: periphrasis says something por rodeo para más la amplificar.^[7] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave both senses: to extend something already great, and to extol a deed by enlarging the discourse with examples and praise.^[9] From 1817 the Academy defined the rhetorical sense as the orator's use of amplification, and Domínguez (1846) added “to exaggerate”.^[10][11]

The modern physical sense, to increase the amplitude or intensity of a signal, especially sound, with a device, is in the DLE and Moliner.^[3][12] In medicine it is also used of copying genes, a use the Spanish medical academy discourages as an anglicism.^[13]

Timeline

• 987 – amplifigare in a Latin charter of Sahagún.^[2]
• 1376–1396 – Fernández de Heredia's translation of Orosius has amplificar, the first record in Spanish.^[7]
• 1463 – Juan de Lucena's Vida beata uses it for increasing a dignity.^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija's grammar uses it in the rhetorical sense.^[7]
• 1495 – the BDELC's date of first record.^[4][14]
• 1583 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[15]
• 1726 – Autoridades records the general and the rhetorical sense.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from amplus and facere.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To enlarge (ampliar), extend: La empresa amplificó su red de oficinas.^[3][1]
2. To increase the amplitude (amplitud) or intensity of a physical phenomenon, especially sound, with a device; to amplify.^[3][12]
3. (rhetoric) To use rhetorical amplification (amplificación).^[3][12]
4. (medicine, genetics) To copy genes; discouraged as an anglicism.^[13]

Related words

• ampliar
• amplificación
• amplificador
• amplio
• ancho
• Latin amplificō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. amplificar
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. amplificar
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ancho
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 69
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. amplificar
8. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. amplificar
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 277
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 61
11. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 115
12. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. amplificar
13. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. amplificar
14. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 41
15. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. amplificar