infinity English · revision 39504

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1374, Chaucer's translation of Boethius|origins=la fīnis}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ɪnˈfɪnɪti/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|infinite]], [[bor|fro|infinité|t=infinity; a very great number]],^(Etymonline)^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024)^(Klein 1966) from [[la|īnfīnītās|t=boundlessness, endlessness]], from [[m|la|īnfīnītus|t=boundless, unlimited]],^(Etymonline)^(Klein 1966)^(OED 2026) itself from [[m|la|in-|t=not]] and [[m|la|fīnis|t=boundary, end]].^(Dictionary.com 2016) The Oxford Dictionary of English allows that it came directly from Latin as well.^(ODE 2010) The French word is recorded from the 13th century,^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline) and its Anglo-Norman form from 1194–99.^(AND) The Latin noun was a loan translation of [[grc|ἀπειρία|tr=apeiría|t=infinity]], from [[m|grc|ἄπειρος|tr=ápeiros|t=endless, infinite]].^(Etymonline)^(Klein 1966)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The quality of having no limit, especially as an attribute of God: about 1374, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ By 1377, in ''Piers Plowman'', the word also meant something infinite, such as a boundless space or an endless time.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline) About 1480 it was first used loosely for a vast number or amount, a sense the OED notes was frequent in Old French;^(OED 2026) the Anglo-Norman word already meant "a very large quantity".^(AND) The phrase ''to infinity'', rendering Latin ''ad infinitum'', appears in 1640.^(OED 2026) Johnson (1755) defined it as "immensity; boundlessness; unlimited qualities", quoting Raleigh's remark that there cannot be more infinities than one.^(Johnson 1755) Mathematicians took it up for an infinite quantity in 1693, in Halley, with the sign ∞,^(OED 2026) while from 1867 geometry and photography used ''at infinity'' for a distance so great that it can be treated as infinite.^(OED 2026)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 13th century – French ''infinité''.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)

+ * c. 1374 – boundlessness, especially of God (Chaucer).^(OED 2026)

+ * 1377 – something infinite; endless time or space (''Piers Plowman'').^(OED 2026)

+ * c. 1480 – a vast number or amount.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1640 – ''to infinity''.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1693 – in mathematics, an infinite quantity (Halley).^(OED 2026)

+ * 1867 – ''at infinity'', in geometry and photography.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The state or quality of being [[infinite]], without any limit.^(Collins 2023)^(AHD 2024)^(MWU 2024)

+ # Space, time or quantity that has no end.^(Collins 2023)^(AHD 2024)

+ # A very great, indefinite number or amount: ''an infinity of grains of sand''.^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)^(AHD 2024)

+ # ''(mathematics)'' A quantity larger than any number that can be named, written ∞.^(OED 2026)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(optics, photography)'' A distance so great that light from it reaches a [[lens]] as [[parallel]] rays: ''a camera focused at infinity''.^(Collins 2023)^(AHD 2024)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[finish]]

+ * [[finite]]

+ * [[infinite]]

+ * [[infinitude]]

+ * [[infinitesimal]]

+ * [[final]]

+ * [[ad infinitum]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}