compendium

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin compendium (“a saving, gain; a shortening, abridgment”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} literally "that which is weighed together",^[3][2][7] from compendō (“to weigh together”),^[2][3][8] from com- (“together”) and pendō (“to hang; to weigh, pay”),^[3][2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pen- (“to draw, stretch, spin”).^[3][9] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster take it from the Medieval Latin use of the word.^[3][5] Barnhart calls it a separate reborrowing: Middle English had compendi, about 1441, which apparently did not survive,^[4][3] while the adjective compendious had been borrowed from Latin about 1395, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[4] Weekley compares compensate,^[10] and Ayto lists it under ponder.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A short cut, "the near way" in Johnson's words: 1581, in Mulcaster's Positions, a sense found only that once.^[2] The sense of an abridgement of a larger work appears in 1589, in Thomas Nashe's preface to Greene's Menaphon,^[2][4] and Merriam-Webster also dates the word to 1589.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense of saving became, in English, a work that saves the reader time by giving the substance of a larger one.^[3][11][8] From 1602 it could also be an embodiment in miniature of something,^[2][11] and it has meant a summary or brief since 1608.^[2] The literal sense of saving labour or space was used from 1638 to 1812.^[2][11] Johnson (1755) listed abridgment, summary and "that which holds much in a narrow room".^[12] In British use the word was extended to things gathered in one container: a box of different games (about 1899) and a pack of letter-writing paper and envelopes (1923).^[2][13]

Timeline

• 1581 – a short cut (obsolete).^[2]
• 1589 – an abridgement of a larger work, giving its substance.^[2][4][5]
• 1602 – an embodiment in miniature.^[2]
• 1608 – a summary, a brief.^[2]
• 1638 – saving of labour or space (obsolete by 1812).^[2]
• 1833 – a single character standing for two or more letters.^[2]
• c. 1899 – a box containing several different games.^[2]
• 1923 – a package of the stationery needed for writing letters.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short but comprehensive summary of a larger work or of a whole subject; an abridgment or digest.^[5][13][2]
2. A collection of many items, facts or examples gathered in one work: The guide is a compendium of local walks and folklore.^[5][13]
3. (British) A set of different games or other objects in one box.^[13][2]
4. (British) A book of useful hints.^[13]
5. (obsolete) A short cut; a saving of labour or space.^[2][11][12]

Related words

• compendious
• compensate
• pendant
• ponder
• pension

Usage notes

The plural is compendiums or compendia.^[13][5][11]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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.
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins