depreciation

Etymology

It is formed from English depreciate + -ion,^[2][3][4][5] as a noun of action.^[2][4] The verb depreciate is from Latin dēpretiātus, the past participle of dēpretiō (“to lower the price of, undervalue”),^[3][4][6] spelt dēpreciō in Medieval Latin,^[2][3][7] from dē- (“down”) and pretium (“price, value”),^[2][4][3] the source of price.^[4][6] The French word dépréciation is recorded from 1784.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A lowering of value, a fall in the exchange value of money: 1767, in the writings of Benjamin Franklin.^[2][3][4] Dictionary.com dates the word earlier, to 1730–40, and marks it as an Americanism.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word first described the falling value of currency.^[4][2] From 1790 it was also used of belittling a person or thing, deliberately underrating their merits,^[4][2] matching the older sense of the verb, "to undervalue", recorded from the 15th century.^[4][9] The accounting sense, the loss of value of a durable asset through age and wear, and the allowance made for it in balance sheets, is dated to 1900 by the OED and Etymonline,^[2][4] but to the mid 19th century by the Shorter Oxford.^[10]

Timeline

• 1767 – a fall in the exchange value of money.^[2][3]
• 1790 – disparagement, belittling.^[2][4]
• 1900 – loss of value of an asset through age and wear; the allowance made for it.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A decrease in value, or the act of making something lose value: the depreciation of the currency.^[5][11]
2. (accounting) The reduction in value of a fixed asset through use, age or obsolescence, or the amount set aside for it each year: The firm wrote off the depreciation of its fleet of vans.^[11][5][2]
3. A fall in the exchange value of a currency against other currencies.^[11][2]
4. The act of belittling someone or something; disparagement.^[11][5][2]

Word family

• self-depreciation

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins