Etymologically
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apiece

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /əˈpiːs/[1]
  • US: /əˈpis/[1]

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]

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