Etymograph

English

intense

Intense comes from Middle English intens, from Old French intense or directly from Latin intēnsus ‘stretched tight’, from intendō, ultimately PIE *tend-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*tend-1‘to stretch’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtendō1‘to stretch’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEintendō1‘to stretch out’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEintēnsus1‘stretched tight’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400intense1uncertain
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500intens1
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1645intense1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English intense
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1645, John Milton: “No mortall nature can endure either in the actions…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*tend-Wiktionary, English intense‘to stretch’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtendōWiktionary, English intense‘to stretch’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEintendōWiktionary, English intense‘to stretch out’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEintēnsusWiktionary, English intense‘stretched tight’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400intenseWiktionary, English intenseuncertain
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500intensWiktionary, English intense
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1645intenseWiktionary, English intense. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1645, John Milton: “No mortall nature can endure either in the actions…”

The story

From Late Middle English intens, intense (‘ardent, fervent; extreme, great, intense’), borrowed from Old French intense (modern French intense), or directly from its etymon Latin intēnsus (‘strained, stretched tight; intense; attentive; violent; (rare) eager, intent’), the perfect passive participle of intendō (‘to stretch out, strain’), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + tendō (‘to extend, stretch’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (‘to extend, stretch’)).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with intense, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *tend- ‘to extend, stretch’

  • attend ← attenden
  • tun ← tunne ← tunne ← *tunnǭ ← tunna
  • pretentious ← prétentieux ← prétention ← praetēnsus
  • ostensible ← ostensus ← ostendō

9 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Of a characteristic: extreme or very high or strong in degree; severe; also, excessive, towering.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “intense”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *tend- / intense