Origin and history of wide

"having relatively great extension from side to side; having a certain or specified extension from side to side;" Old English wid, also "vast, long," also used of time; from Proto-Germanic *widaz (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian wid, Old Norse viðr, Dutch wijd, Old High German wit, German weit), which is perhaps (Watkins) from PIE *wi-ito-, from root *wi- "apart, away, in half."

The meaning "distended, expanded, spread apart" is attested by c. 1500; the sense of "embracing many subjects" is from 1530s. The meaning "missing the intended target" is from 1580s. Of a dialect, "characterized by a broad accent," by mid-15c.

As a second element in compounds (such as nationwide, worldwide) and meaning "extending through the whole of," it is from late Old English. Wide-screen in reference to cinema projection is by 1931.

"to a distance; with a large space between," Old English wide; see wide (adj.). By 1580s as "away from or to the side of a mark."

Wide open "unguarded, exposed to attack" is by 1915, originally in pugilism. Late Old English and Middle English also had widewhere "far and wide, everywhere."