multiple
/ˈmʌltəpəl/adjective, noun
Consisting of many parts, units, or instances
From Latin multi- (Many).
Lineage
multi-
-plus
The story
Picture a Roman mathematician piling one quantity on top of another and labeling the result multiplus: “many-fold.” That compact Latin construction eventually traveled through French multiple before appearing in English in the 1640s. The first half, multi-, is a prolific little engine meaning “many”—the same family that gives us multitude, multilingual, and multifarious. The second half, -plus, is the “fold” or “more” part, a distant linguistic cousin of the plus sign that now sits on every calculator. English later put the word to work in arithmetic, in “multiple choice” by 1915, and even in “multiple exposure” photography, where one film frame receives several visual impressions—many images folded into one.
Modern usage
A person understood as having multiple personalities or identities
- Heard in
- online communities · plural identity discussions
- See
- Urban Dictionary entry using “multiples” for people with multiple personalities
Words from the same roots
multi- · Latin, ‘Many, much, or many times’
Derivedmultifaceted, multifarious, multinational, multitude, multiply, multilingual
-plus · Latin, ‘Fold, times, or more’
Derivedplus, triple, double, surplus, pluperfect