'Supply' is Latin for 'fill up from below' — from 'plere' (to fill). Kin to 'plenty' and 'full.'
To provide something needed or wanted; a stock or amount of something available for use.
From Old French souplier (to fill up, supplement), from Latin supplere (to fill up, make full, supplement), composed of sub- (up from below) + plere (to fill), from PIE *pleh1- (to fill, to be full). The original Latin sense was filling something from below — topping up a vessel from underneath. Despite its -ply ending resembling the plicare family (apply, comply, reply — all from plicare, to fold
Despite looking like a member of the 'ply/fold' family (apply, comply, imply, reply), 'supply' is actually an impostor — it comes from Latin 'plēre' (to fill), not 'plicāre' (to fold). The ending '-ply' is a phonological coincidence. 'Supply' is related to 'plenty' and 'full,' not to 'complicate' and 'explicit.'
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