vast English · revision 4880

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1575–85|origins=la vastus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /vɑːst/, US /væst/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|frm|vaste]] and directly from [[la|vastus|t=immense, huge; desolate, empty]].^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) The two meanings probably belonged to separate words, with a long and a short a, that merged in early Latin,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) so that vast is related to [[waste]] and [[vain]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(Cresswell 2021) Barnhart and MWU compare Old Irish fot “length”.^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Of very great size: 1575–85 in the OED and Barnhart, the 1570s in Etymonline.^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Of great extent or area is from 1590,^(OED 1989) very great in quantity or number from the 1630s,^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) and very great in degree from the 1670s.^(Etymonline) It was very popular as a mere intensifier in the fashionable speech of the early 18th century, as in ''vast many'' (1695).^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) The noun, an immense space, is from 1604, chiefly poetic.^(OED 1989)^(MWU 2024) A verb vast, to lay waste, is recorded once in 1434.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1575–85 – very large.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1590 – of great extent.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1604 – noun, an immense space.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1637 – very great in quantity.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1696 – a mere intensive.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Extremely large in size, area or amount; [[immense]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Very great in degree: ''a vast improvement''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[vastly]]

+ * [[vastness]]

+ * [[supervast]]

+ * [[vastitude]]

+ * [[vastity]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[waste]]

+ * [[vain]]

+ * [[devastate]]

+ * [[vasty]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}