simple
Contents
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English symple, simple, from Old French and French simple, from Latin simplex (“simple”, literally “onefold”) (as opposed to duplex (“double”, literally “twofold”), from sim- (“the same”) + plicare (“to fold”). See same and fold. Compare single, singular, simultaneous, etc.
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
simple (comparative simpler or more simple, superlative simplest or most simple)
- Uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added.
- 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0088:
- “[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic? […]”
- 2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge University Press →ISBN, page 167,
- There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.
- Without ornamentation; plain.
- Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
- (Can we date this quote?) John Marston
- Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.
- (Can we date this quote?) Lord Byron
- Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?
- (Can we date this quote?) Ralph Waldo Emerson
- To be simple is to be great.
- (Can we date this quote?) John Marston
- Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.
- (now rare) Trivial; insignificant.
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X:
- ‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X:
- (now colloquial) Feeble-minded; foolish.
- (heading, technical) Structurally uncomplicated.
- (chemistry) Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
- (mathematics) Of a group: having no normal subgroup.
- (botany) Not compound, but possibly lobed.
- (of a steam engine) Using steam only once in its cylinders, in contrast to a compound engine, where steam is used more than once in high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders.
- 1959, Steam's Finest Hour, edited by David P. Morgan, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 6:
- Chesapeake & Ohio turned to simple articulateds, for instance, simply because its Alleghany tunnels would not accommodate the low-pressure forward cylinders of larger compounds.
- 1959, Steam's Finest Hour, edited by David P. Morgan, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 6:
- (zoology) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.
- a simple ascidian
- (mineralogy) Homogenous.
- (obsolete) Mere; not other than; being only.
- (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
- A medicine […] whose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin.
- (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
SynonymsEdit
- (consisting of a single part or aspect): onefold
- (having few parts or features): plain
- See also Thesaurus:easy and Thesaurus:bare-bones
AntonymsEdit
- (having few parts or features): complex, compound, complicated
- (uncomplicated): subtle
Derived termsEdit
Term list
TranslationsEdit
uncomplicated
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simple-minded
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NounEdit
simple (plural simples)
- (medicine) A preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
- 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 37, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
- I know there are some simples, which in operation are moistening and some drying.
- (Can we date this quote?) Sir W. Temple
- What virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked simple itself as it comes over from the Indies.
- (obsolete) A term for a physician, derived from the medicinal term above.
- (logic) A simple or atomic proposition.
- (obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.
- (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare
- compounded of many simples
- (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare
- (weaving) A drawloom.
- (weaving) Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
- (Roman Catholicism) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.
TranslationsEdit
VerbEdit
simple (third-person singular simple present simples, present participle simpling, simple past and past participle simpled)
- (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To gather simples, i.e., medicinal herbs.
Derived termsEdit
AnagramsEdit
AsturianEdit
CatalanEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
simple (masculine and feminine plural simples)
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
- fulla simple (“simple leaf”)
- simplement (“simply”)
Related termsEdit
- símplex (“simplex”)
- simplicitat (“simplicity”)
- ximple
ChavacanoEdit
EsperantoEdit
FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old French, borrowed from Latin simplex.
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
simple (plural simples)
- simple
- Un homme simple
- A simple man
- one-way
- Un billet simple
- A one-way ticket
- mere
- Un simple soldat
- A mere soldier
Usage notesEdit
The first and second meanings are taken when the adjective is placed after the noun. The third meaning is taken when it is located before the noun.
DescendantsEdit
- → Romanian: simplu
NounEdit
simple m (plural simples)
Related termsEdit
Terms related to simple
Further readingEdit
- “simple” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
AnagramsEdit
GalicianEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from Latin simplex. Displaced Old Portuguese simplez.
AdjectiveEdit
simple m, f (plural simples)
GermanEdit
LatinEdit
Middle EnglishEdit
Norwegian BokmålEdit
Norwegian NynorskEdit
Old FrenchEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
AdjectiveEdit
simple m (oblique and nominative feminine singular simple)
DescendantsEdit
RomanianEdit
SpanishEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
simple (plural simples)
- simple (uncomplicated)
- Synonym: sencillo
- Antonyms: complicado, complejo
- (before the noun) mere, ordinary
- Synonym: mero
- Soy un simple pescador. ― I'm just a fisherman.
- simple, single (not divided into parts)
- Antonym: compuesto
- simple-minded, stupid
- insipid, flavorless
- Synonym: soso
- (grammar) simple
DescendantsEdit
- Chavacano: simple
NounEdit
simple m, f (plural simples)
- simpleton, fool
- (pharmacology, masculine only) simple
Further readingEdit
- “simple” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.