plenty

Etymology

From Middle English plentie, plentee, plente, from Anglo-Norman plenté, from Old French plenté, from Latin plenitatem, accusative of plenitas (“fullness”), from plenus (“complete, full”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós (“full”), from which English full also comes, via Proto-Germanic. Related to the Latin derivatives complete, deplete, replete.

noun

1. A more-than-adequate amount.
   We are lucky to live in a land of peace and plenty.
   During this season of distress, the discouragements to marriage, and the difficulty of rearing a family are so great that population is at a stand. In the mean time the cheapness of labour, the plenty of labourers, and the necessity of an increased industry amongst them, encourage cultivators to employ more labour upon their land, to turn up fresh soil, and to manure and improve more completely what is already in tillage 1798, Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population

pron

1. More than enough.
   I think six eggs should be plenty for this recipe.

adv

1. (Canada, US) More than sufficiently.
   This office is plenty big enough for our needs.
   For the likes of her, the down-at-heels support of Hoboken pier was plenty good enough. 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 1
2. (Canada, US, colloquial) Used as an intensifier, very.
   She was plenty mad at him.
   Seeing clichés mimicked this skillfully is plenty hilarious. 26 June 2014, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2017-12-07

det

1. (nonstandard) much, enough
   There'll be plenty time later for that
2. (nonstandard) many
   Get a manicure. Plenty men do it.

adj

1. (obsolete) plentiful
   if reasons were as plenty as blackberries 1597, Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act I, Scene IV
   Radishes are very plenty. Of cabbages a few heads of this year's crop have come to hand this week, and sold readily at quotations; […] 1836, The American Gardener's Magazine and Register, volume 2, page 279