apportion

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French apportionner,^[2][3][4] from Old French aporcioner (“to share out”),^[5][3] formed from a- (“to”), from Latin ad-, and portioner (“to divide into portions”),^[5][6][2] from porcion (“share, portion”), which continues portiō (“share, part”).^[5] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English allow a second source in Medieval Latin apportionare.^[7][8] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1302, meaning to divide up and to assess.^[9] Johnson derived the English word directly from Latin.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To divide and assign in proper shares: 1528 to 1530, in a translation of Littleton's Tenures.^[11] Other dates differ widely: Merriam-Webster Unabridged says the 15th century,^[2] and Barnhart 1574,^[3] with Etymonline's 1570s and Dictionary.com's 1565 to 1575 close to it.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

From 1587 it could also mean to assign something to a person as a proper share.^[11] From 1615 it meant to adjust something to the right measure, a sense the OED now calls archaic and the Shorter Oxford ends in the early 19th century.^[11][7] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as setting out in just proportions, quoting Bacon on apportioning time.^[10] Coke's Institutes of 1628 has both a short-lived noun apportion and the lasting apportionment.^[11][3] In the United States it gained a specific constitutional sense: to assign a direct federal tax among the states according to population.^[2]

Timeline

• 1528–30 – to divide and assign in proper shares.^[11]
• 1587 – to assign to a person as a proper share; to allot.^[11]
• 1615 – to adjust to the proper measure (now archaic).^[11]
• 1628 – noun, division in just proportion (now obsolete).^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To divide something and give out shares in proportion; to allot: The inquiry declined to apportion blame for the collision.^[12][2][11]
2. (US) To assign a direct federal tax among the states in proportion to population.^[2]
3. (archaic) To adjust to the proper measure or proportion.^[11][7]

Word family

• apportionable
• apportioner
• reapportion
• unapportioned
• apportionment

Related words

• portion
• proportion
• part

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins