vast: [16] Latin vastus originally meant ‘empty, unoccupied, deserted’. The sense ‘huge’, in which English borrowed it, is a secondary semantic development. Another metaphorical route took it to ‘ravaged, destroyed’, in which sense it lies behind English devastate and waste. => devastate, waste
vast (adj.)
1570s, "being of great extent or size," from Middle French vaste, from Latin vastus "immense, extensive, huge," also "desolate, unoccupied, empty." The two meanings probably originally attached to two separate words, one with a long -a- one with a short -a-, that merged in early Latin (see waste (v.)). Meaning "very great in quantity or number" is from 1630s; that of "very great in degree" is from 1670s. Very popular early 18c. as an intensifier. Related: Vastly; vastness; vasty.
雙語例句
1. In the cities vast crowds have been demonstrating for change.
在城市里，大批的人群舉行示威游行，要求進(jìn)行變革。
來自柯林斯例句
2. Portugal and Spain had possessed vast empires that waxed and waned.
葡萄牙和西班牙都曾是經(jīng)歷了興衰的大帝國。
來自柯林斯例句
3. This vast archive has been indexed and made accessible to researchers.
這個存量巨大的檔案室的所有文件都已編了索引，可供研究人員使用。
來自柯林斯例句
4. The pollution has already turned vast areas into a wasteland.
污染已經(jīng)使大片地區(qū)淪為不毛之地。
來自柯林斯例句
5. Compact discs have brought about a vast improvement in recorded sound quality.