allocate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin allocātus, the past participle of allocō (“to place, allot, allow”),^[2][3][4][5] which is formed from Latin ad- (“to”) and locō (“to place”),^[6][7][8][9] from locus (“place”).^[6][7][10] An earlier noun of the same spelling named a writ to the Exchequer: it is the imperative of the same Latin verb, the word with which such writs began.^[4][8][6] The same Latin verb, through Old French, gave allow, of which this word is a doublet.^[11][6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, a writ authorizing the Exchequer to set off a sum paid to a third party against money owed to the king: 1438, in the Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council.^[4][8] The verb, at first apparently meaning to allow an item in an account, follows in 1551–2.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

From the bookkeeping sense of the writ, the verb came to mean setting something aside as the share or responsibility of a person or department, recorded from 1616 in the OED and Merriam-Webster.^[4][2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1630s, the Shorter Oxford the verb to the mid 16th century, and Barnhart to 1640–41, as a verb use of the earlier adjective allocate, allocated, which the OED records in Scots from 1533.^{[6][12][8][4]} From 1681 it was also used of assigning a person to a place or task.^[4] The sense "to locate, fix the place of" ran from 1660 to 1881 in the OED,^[4] and Collins still lists it as a less common word for locate.^[10]

Timeline

• 1438 – noun, a writ to the Exchequer authorizing a payment.^[4][8]
• 1533 – adjective, allocated, in Scots.^[4][12]
• 1551 – verb, to allow an item in an account.^[4][12]
• 1616 – to set aside as a particular share or for a purpose.^[4][2]
• 1660 – to fix the place of; to locate.^[4]
• 1681 – to assign a person to a place or duty.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To set aside or assign something for a particular purpose: The council allocated funds for a new library.^[10][2][4]
2. To distribute shares of something among persons or things; to apportion.^[2][4]
3. To assign a person to a particular place, duty or task.^[4][12]
4. (rare) To locate.^[10][4]
5. (obsolete, 1551–1572) To allow an item in an account; to authorize payment for it.^[4][12]

Word family

• allocable
• allocation
• allocatable
• allocator
• misallocate
• reallocate

Related words

• lieu
• locate
• allow
• locus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press