Now that's a lot. [Phrase origin]

[Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco]

The phrase just struck me today really. ‘A lot.’

I’m curious where it originates from. Ideas of mine range from the lottery (winning a lot) owning a ‘lot’, and the now obsolete Russian measurement ‘lot’.

How did this come about? When did ‘lot’ become synonymous with heaps, many, plenty, and much?

[Colibri]

Title edited for clarity.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[Exapno_Mapcase]

Online Etymology Dictionary

lot
O.E. hlot “object (anything from dice to straw, but often a chip of wood with a name inscribed on it) used to determine someone’s share,” also “what falls to a person by lot,” from P.Gmc. *khlutom (cf. O.N. hlutr “lot, share,” O.H.G. hluz “share of land,” O.E. hleotan “to cast lots, to foretell”), of unknown origin. The object was placed with others in a receptacle, which was shaken, the winner being the one that fell out first. Hence, to cast lots. In some cases the lots were drawn by hand. The word was adopted from Gmc. into the Romanic languages (cf. lottery, lotto). Meaning “choice resulting from the lasting of lots” first attested c.1205. Sense of “plot of land” is first recorded 1633 (distribution of the best property in new settlements often determined by casting lot), that of “group, collection” is 1725, from notion of auction lots. The generalized sense of “great many” is first attested in 1812. To cast (one’s) lot with another is to agree to share winnings.

[Johnny_L.A]

5 a: a number of units of an article, a single article, or a parcel of articles offered as one item (as in an auction sale)