allotment

Etymology

The OED, the Shorter Oxford and Hoad take it as formed from English allot + -ment,^[2][3][4][5] which Barnhart thinks more likely than a borrowing.^[6] Merriam-Webster, Klein and Etymonline derive it instead from Middle French alotement, French allotement,^[7][8][9] and the OED compares Anglo-Norman alotement, used of allocating property from the early 14th century,^[2][10] and the French word, recorded by Cotgrave in 1611.^[2] The verb allot is from Anglo-Norman aloter (“to assign”), formed from a- (“to”) and lot, a word of Germanic origin related to lot.^{[2][6][9][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A share or portion allotted to someone: 1528–30, in a translation of Littleton's Tenures.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to about 1530.^[7] Etymonline instead gives the action of allotting in the 1570s and the sense "that which is allotted" only from the 1670s,^[9] and Barnhart dates the word to 1574.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From 1560 the word was used of a portion of land assigned to someone or set apart for a purpose.^[2][3] The specially British sense, a small plot rented from a local authority for growing vegetables or flowers, is recorded from 1801.^[2][12] In the United States an allotment was, from 1860, a piece of land divided by the government from land held in common by Indigenous people and given to individuals as private property.^[2] The action of allotting is recorded from about 1571,^[2] and since 1586 the word could mean one's lot, what is assigned by God or fate;^[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined it only as the share granted to someone, quoting L'Estrange on "the allotments of God and nature".^[13] In the navy, from 1766, an allotment was the part of a seaman's pay assigned to a family member.^[2] An obsolete commercial sense, an account of the lots into which a ship's cargo was divided, lasted from 1703 to 1819.^[2]

Timeline

• 1528–30 – a share or portion allotted.^[2]
• 1560 – a portion of land; a plot.^[2]
• c. 1571 – the action of allotting.^[2]
• 1586 – one's lot, as assigned by God or fate.^[2]
• 1703 – an account of the lots of a ship's cargo (obsolete by 1819).^[2]
• 1766 – part of a seaman's pay assigned to a dependant.^[2]
• 1801 – a small rented plot for growing vegetables.^[2]
• 1860 – in the United States, land allotted to an Indigenous person.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of allotting; apportionment: the allotment of seats on the committee.^[12][7][2]
2. A share or portion that has been allotted.^[12][7][2]
3. (chiefly British) A small plot of land, usually public, rented by a person for growing vegetables or flowers.^[12][2][3]
4. What is given to someone by fate or destiny; one's lot.^[7][2]
5. Part of a service member's pay assigned to a family member or other person.^[2]
6. (US, chiefly historical) A piece of land made over by the government to an individual Native American from land formerly held in common.^[2]

Word family

• misallotment
• nonallotment

Related words

• allot

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.