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Origin and history of finite

finite(adj.)

early 15c., "limited in space or time, finite," from Latin finitum, past participle of finire "to limit, set bounds; come to an end" (see finish (v.)). Related: Finitely; finiteness.

also from early 15c.

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finish(v.)

late 14c., "to bring to an end;" mid-15c., "to come to an end" (intransitive), from Old French finiss-, present participle stem of fenir "stop, finish, come to an end; die" (13c.), from Latin finire "to limit, set bounds; put an end to; come to an end," from finis "that which divides, a boundary, border," figuratively "a limit, an end, close, conclusion; an extremity, highest point; greatest degree," which is of unknown origin, perhaps related to figere "to fasten, fix" (see fix (v.)). Meaning "to kill, terminate the existence of" is from 1755.

finitude(n.)

1640s, from finite + -ude (see -tude).

finity(n.)

1670s, "an instance of finiteness," from French finité, from fini, past participle of finir "to bound," from Latin finire (see finite).

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    infinite
    late 14c., "eternal, limitless," also "extremely great in number," from Old French infinit "endless, boundless" and directly from Latin infinitus "unbounded, unlimited, countless, numberless," from in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + finitus "defining, definite," from finis "e
    rational
    In arithmetic, "expressible in finite terms," 1560s....
    contingent
    The noun is from 1540s, "thing happening by chance or by the will of a finite free agent;" as "a group forming part of a...
    grammar
    late 14c., "Latin grammar, rules of Latin," from Old French gramaire "grammar; learning," especially Latin and philology, also "(magic) incantation, spells, mumbo-jumbo" (12c., Modern French grammaire), an "irregular semi-popular adoption" [OED, 2nd ed. 1989] of Latin grammatica
    adventure
    c. 1200, aventure, auenture "that which happens by chance, fortune, luck," from Old French aventure (11c.) "chance, accident, occurrence, event, happening," from Latin adventura (res) "(a thing) about to happen," from fem. of adventurus, future participle of advenire "to come to,
    museum
    1610s, "the university building in Alexandria," from Latin museum "library, study," from Greek mouseion "place of study, library or museum, school of art or poetry," originally "a temple or shrine of the Muses," from Mousa "Muse" (see muse (n.)). The earliest use in reference to
    interpret
    late 14c., "expound the meaning of, render clear or explicit," from Old French interpreter "explain; translate" (13c.) and directly from Latin interpretari "explain, expound, understand," from interpres "agent, translator," from inter "between" (see inter-) + second element proba
    ballpark
    also ball-park, "baseball stadium," 1893, short for baseball (or football) park; see ball (n.1) + park (n.). To be in the ballpark in the figurative sense of "within an acceptable range of approximation" is first recorded 1954, originally in the jargon of atomic weapons scientist
    score
    late Old English scoru "twenty," from Old Norse skor "mark, notch, incision; a rift in rock," also, in Icelandic, "twenty," from Proto-Germanic *skur-, from PIE root *sker- (1) "to cut." The notion probably is of counting large numbers (of a passing flock of sheep, etc.) by makin

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