Other forms: sizes, sized, sizing
Size is how big or small something is. What size are you, the wrong size, a size twelve.
In clothing, sizes are not standardised between makers or countries, which is why the number on the label means little and vanity sizing means it means less. Size also works as a plain measurement — the size of the problem, cut to size. Note size up, meaning to assess somebody; and that size is also a glue-like sealant used on plaster and canvas, which is a different word entirely.
1nounsizeHow big or small something is.
“These shoes are too small; do you have them in a bigger size?”
2verbassessTo assess somebody or something.
“The boxers sized each other up before the fight began.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
size is a measure of magnitude.
Middle English sise is a shortening of assize, a session that set legal standards — including how big a loaf had to be. Size started as a regulated amount and became the amount itself.
Proto-Indo-European
*sed-
Latin
assideo
Old French
cise
Middle English
syse
English, today
size
Built from
Attested since the 14th century, originally meant a “law or regulation that determines the amount to be paid”, from Middle English syse, sise (“regulation, control, limit”), from Old French cise, sise, aphetism of assise (“assize”), from the verb asseoir (“to sit down”), from Latin assideo, composed of ad- + sedeō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European sed-. Displaced native miċelnes.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA