Etymologically
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compensation

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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
  • 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