compensation

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˌkɒm.pənˈseɪ.ʃən/, US /ˌkɑːm.pənˈseɪ.ʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English compensacioun, through Old French from Latin compēnsātiō (“a weighing of one thing against another, a balancing”) (accusative compensationem),^[2][3][4] a noun of action from the past participle stem of compēnsāre (“to weigh one thing against another, counterbalance”) (see compensate),^[2][5] from com “with, together” and pēnsāre, a frequentative of pendere “to hang, weigh, pay”,^[2] from the PIE root Proto-Indo-European *(s)pen- (“to draw, stretch, spin”).^[2] Compare pendant and pension.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of compensating or the condition of being compensated: 1387 in the OED, the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

What is given in recompense or as an equivalent is from about 1600, 1610 in the OED,^[2][7] and amends for loss or damage from 1804.^[2][7] Salary or wages, especially of a public servant, is American English from 1787.^[2][7] In mechanics the balancing of opposing forces is from 1789,^[7] in medicine the making up by one organ for a defect in another from 1866,^[7][8] and in psychology the concealing of a weakness by stressing another trait from 1914.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1387 – the action of compensating.^[7]
• c. 1600 – a recompense.^[2]
• 1787 – salary, wages, in America.^[2][7]
• 1789 – in mechanics.^[7]
• 1804 – amends for damage.^[2][7]
• 1914 – in psychology.^[2][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Money or something else given to make up for loss, injury or damage.
2. (chiefly US) Payment for work; salary or wages.
3. The act of compensating, or of making amends.
4. (psychology) Hiding or making up for a weakness by developing or stressing another trait.
5. (biology) The increased activity of one part of an organism that makes up for a loss or defect in another.

Word family

• compensational
• noncompensation
• overcompensation
• decompensation
• precompensation
• workers' compensation
• compensation neurosis
• workmen's compensation

Related words

• compensate
• compensatory
• pension
• pendant
• pensive
• recompense

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin