size

The modern English word 'size' has a fascinating journey from a legal concept to a measurement standard. It entered Middle English from Anglo-Norman French, where 'sise' or 'assise' referred to a fixed ordinance or tax assessment, essentially a "setting" or "regulation" of amounts. This sense of a fixed standard evolved to denote a fixed portion of food or drink, and then, by the 15th century, to a standard dimension for manufactured articles. The core logic connects the idea of "setting" or "fixing" a standard (from Latin 'assidere', to sit by, hence to settle) to the established measurements we use today. The verb form, meaning to adjust to a standard dimension, naturally followed from this noun.

The word 'size' is a simplex word derived from a single root. It originates from the Old French 'sise', an aphetic form of 'assise', meaning "an ordinance to fix the amount of a payment or tax", later "a fixed standard for goods". The Old French term comes from the feminine past participle of 'asseoir' (to seat, to set), from Latin 'assidere' (to sit beside, assist in the office of a judge).