English

vast

Vast comes from Latin vastus ‘void, immense’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘empty, wasted’.

Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-¹‘empty’reconstructed
Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(h₁)weh₂-stos¹reconstructed
Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wāstos¹reconstructed
Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvastus²‘void’
Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600vaste²
Englishearliest quotation c. 1593vast²

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

¹ Wiktionary, Latin vastus
² Wiktionary, English vast
Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1593, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]: “the empty, vast, and wandering air”.

Lineage

Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-1Wiktionary, Latin vastus‘empty’reconstructed
Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(h₁)weh₂-stos1Wiktionary, Latin vastusreconstructed
Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wāstos1Wiktionary, Latin vastusreconstructed
Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvastus2Wiktionary, English vast‘void’
Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600vaste2Wiktionary, English vast
Englishearliest quotation c. 1593vast2Wiktionary, English vast. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1593, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]: “the empty, vast, and wandering air”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘empty, wasted’

want, various, variety, vacation, waste, void, variable, vary, vacant, vanity, vain, evacuate, vanish, waning, vacate, wane, vacuous, varicella, evanescent, 25 more

through Latin vastus ‘void, immense’

devastate, 3 more

Today it means

adj Very large or wide (literally or figuratively).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “vast”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin vastus. 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 *h₁weh₂- / vast

Shirt and support for this word

vastvast