apiece

Etymology

It is formed from English a + piece, first written as the Middle English phrase a pece.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The first part is the indefinite article in the sense "for each",^[4][7][8] itself from Old English ān (“one”);^[4] the second is pece, from Old French pece,^[3][9] from Vulgar Latin *pettia, probably of Celtic origin.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

For each one: before 1475, in the Boke of Curtasye.^[10] Etymonline dates a pece to the mid 15th century and the one-word form to the 1550s,^[2] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1425–75.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The phrase was first used in reckoning coins, pottery, cloth and other goods at so much a piece, but it was soon extended to the members of any group, people included, so that the link with piece was no longer felt.^[10][2] Johnson (1755) explained it as "to the part or share of each".^[12] In northern English dialect and in Derbyshire it was still used around 1900 for "severally, to each one".^[13]

Timeline

• before 1475 – a pece, for each one.^[10][2]
• 1550s – written as one word, apiece.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. For, to or from each one of a group; each: The tickets cost ten dollars apiece.^[14][4][15]

Related words

• piece
• a

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ a b c Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press