Etymology

equalize

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Today it means: To make equal; to cause to correspond in amount or degree. Full definition →

First used 16th–19th c.English equal ← Middle English equal ← Latin aequālis
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The story

  1. Proto-Italic*aikʷos?
  2. Old Latinaiquos
  3. Latinaequus
  4. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
  6. Latinaequālis
  7. Middle Englishequal
  8. Englishequal
  9. English todayequalize

From equal + -ize.

First known use, by meaning

  • 16th–19th c. To be equal to; to equal, to rival.
  • from 20th c. To make the scoreline equal by scoring points.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.