Meaning

adjective possessing or displaying a distinctive feature to a heightened degree

adjective extremely sharp or intense

adjective (of color) having the highest saturation

originFrom Late Middle English intens, intense (“ardent, fervent; extreme, great, intense”), borrowed from Old French intense (modern French intense), or directly from its etymon Latin intēnsus (“strained, stretched tight; intense; attentive; violent; (rare) eager, intent”), the perfect passive participle of intendō (“to stretch out, strain”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + tendō (“to…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0