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.
例文
1. In the cities vast crowds have been demonstrating for change.
都市部では、多くの人々が変革を求めるデモを行っている。
2.Portugal and Spain had possesed vast empires that waxed and waned.
ポルトガルもスペインも盛衰を経験した大帝国だった。
3.This vast archive has been indexed and made accessible to researchers.
この膨大な保管場所のファイルはすべてインデックス化されており、研究者が使用できる。
4.The pollation has already turned vast areas into a wasteland.
汚染はすでに広い地域を不毛の地にしている。
5.Compact discs have brought about a vast improvement in recorded sound quality.