Etymologically
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amplio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈam.pli.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈam.pli.o][1]

Forms

ampliō (present infinitive ampliāre, perfect active ampliāvī, supine ampliātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin amplius (“more, further”) + -ō, from the comparative of amplus (“large, ample”).[2][3] De Vaan derives the adjective from Proto-Italic *am-lo- (“seizable”) and a root Proto-Indo-European *h₃mh₃- (“to grab”), though this requires a change of /ml/ to /mpl/ that he finds hard to date.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first quotation is in the legal sense, in the Rhetorica ad Herennium, which asks why the judges hesitated or deferred judgement on a criminal, istum hominem nefarium ampliaveritis.[2]

Semantic evolution

The legal use is the oldest: to adjourn a trial for further hearing, as when Cicero speaks of a law that allows adjournment, lex ampliandi, and Livy of a defendant bis ampliatus, tertio absolutus, twice adjourned and acquitted the third time.[2][5] The grammarian Charisius explains it from the judges' saying amplius, “further”, when they wanted to hear more, and so put the case off.[3] In the general sense of enlarging or increasing, Lewis and Short find it rare before Augustus: Horace has it of a fortune, Celsus of widening a wound with the scalpel, Lucan and Suetonius of a river's course and a temple.[2][6] Pliny the Younger and Suetonius use it of increasing a number.[2][6] It also means to magnify or make glorious: Martial has honours that Janus ter ampliavit, and Quintilian says Scipio's courage is ampliatur by Hannibal's renown.[2][6][5] The Vulgate uses it of beauty enhanced.[6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means to enlarge, to ennoble and to defer a decision.[7] It lived on in Italian ampiare and Spanish anchar, and was borrowed again as ampliare and ampliar.[1][5]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of the lex ampliandi.[2][8]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of enlarging a fortune.[2][8]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy has bis ampliatus, tertio absolutus.[2][8]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of glorifying a hero's courage.[2][8]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of enhanced beauty.[6][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To enlarge, extend, increase in size, amount or number.[2][6][5]
  2. To make greater or stronger;[2] (rhetoric) to magnify, make much of.[2]
  3. To make glorious, ennoble; to enhance a dignity.[2][6][7]
  4. (law) To adjourn a trial, defer judgement on a person or case.[2][6][5]

Word family

  • adampliō
  • ampliātiō
  • ampliator

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de