Vastity
/ˈvæs.tɪ.ti/noun
The condition or quality of being vast; immense extent or spaciousness.
Did you know?The Latin root behind vastity, vastus, could mean both “enormous” and “empty or desolate,” linking grandeur with wasteland imagery.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*wāstos
“Empty, desolate, or unoccupied; a proposed ancestral root associated with open waste.”
Classical Latin
Latin
vastus
“Empty, desolate, devastated, or immense.”
Late Latin
Latin
vāstitās
“Emptiness, desolation, devastation, or vast extent.”
Old French
Old French
vastité
“Vastness, immense extent, or desolation.”
14th Century
Middle English
vastite
“Vastness or immensity.”
Modern English
English
vastity
“Vastness; the quality of being vast, now chiefly rare or literary.”