Etymology

breadth

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Today it means: The extent or measure of how broad or wide something is; width. Full definition →

Middle English bredthe
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited frombredthe
  2. English todaybreadth

From Middle English bredthe, alteration (due to nouns ending in -th: length, strength, wrength, etc.) of brede ("breadth"; see bread). Equivalent to broad + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Scots bredth (“breadth”), Saterland Frisian Bratte (“breadth”), West Frisian breedte (“breadth”), Dutch breedte (“breadth”), German Low German Breddte, Breddt (“breadth”), German Breite (“breadth”), Danish bredde (“breadth”), Norwegian Bokmål bredde (“breadth”), Swedish bredd (“breadth”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.