Abounded

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Existed or was present in great quantities or numbers
2. Was plentiful or found in abundance in a particular place or situation
3. Occurred or appeared in large amounts or extensive quantity

Etymology: "Abounded" is the past tense of "abound", a verb that has been in English since the 1320s, when it was borrowed through Old French from the Latin "abundare", meaning "overflow". The Latin verb is built from "ab", "from" or "down from", and "undare", "to surge or rise in waves", which itself comes from "unda", "wave". So the word's core image is literal: something spilling over like water that has risen past its container. That watery origin is easy to miss today, when "abound" mostly describes things like fish in a river or opportunities in a city. Its earliest English sense stayed close to the Latin, with the idea of overflowing or having more than enough, and the notion of plentiful presence grew from there. The past tense "abounded" simply follows the regular pattern for verbs of this kind.

Synonyms: thrived, flourished, existed in plenty

Antonyms: lacked, diminished