Origin and history of intense

c. 1300, entenden, "direct one's attention to, pay attention, give heed," from Old French entendre, intendre "to direct one's attention" (in Modern French principally "to hear"), from Latin intendere "turn one's attention, strain (in quest of something), be zealous," literally "stretch out, extend," from in- "toward" (from PIE root *en "in") + tendere "to stretch" (from PIE root *ten- "to stretch").

The sense of "have as a plan, have in mind or purpose" (late 14c.) was present in Latin. A Germanic word for this was ettle, from Old Norse ætla "to think, conjecture, propose," from Proto-Germanic *ahta "consideration, attention" (source also of Old English eaht, German acht). Related: Intended; intending.

1817 (transitive), "render the action of intense or more intense," from intense + -ify. First attested in Coleridge, in place of intend, which, he wrote, no longer was felt as connected with intense. The intransitive sense of "become more intense" is attested from 1845. Middle English used intensen (v.) "to increase (something), strengthen, intensify," early 15c. Related: Intensified; intensifying.

I am aware that this word [intensifying] occurs neither in Johnson's Dictionary nor in any classical writer. But the word, "to intend," which Newton and others before him employ in this sense, is now so completely appropriated to another meaning, that I could not use it without ambiguity: while to paraphrase the sense, as by render intense, would often break up the sentence and destroy that harmony of the position of the words with the logical position of the thoughts, which is a beauty in all composition, and more especially desirable in a close philosophical investigation. I have therefore hazarded the word, intensify; though, I confess, it sounds uncouth to my own ear. [Coleridge, footnote in "Biographia Literaria," 1817]

"character or state of being intense," 1660s, from intense + -ity. Earlier was intenseness (1610s). A scientific term originally, "amount of energy with which a force operates;" the sense of "extreme depth of feeling" or the expression of it is attested by 1830.