Etymologically
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disparity

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /dɪˈspæɹɪti/, /dɪˈspæɹəti/[1]
  • US: /dɪˈspæɹɪti/, /dɪˈspæɹəti/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French disparité, also desparité,[2][3][4][5][6] from Late Latin disparitās (“inequality”),[2][3][7][6] formed from dis- (“not”) and paritās (“equality”), from pār (“equal”).[8][2][7] Etymonline takes the immediate Latin source as Medieval Latin,[8] and the OED compares disparità and disparidad.[5] Johnson derived it from dispār (“unequal”).[9] The word is related to parity,[7][10][11] and, more distantly, to pair and par.[12][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unlikeness, dissimilarity: about 1555 in the OED of 1989 and in Barnhart,[13][2] before 1575, in Harpsfield's treatise on the divorce of Henry VIII, in the current OED.[5] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1550s.[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense of inequality in rank, condition or circumstances followed in the 1590s: the OED's first record is from Hooker's Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1597),[5][8] and Johnson (1755) quoted Hooker for "inequality; difference in degree either of rank or excellence".[9] From before 1682, in Sir Thomas Browne, the word was also used with a plural for a particular instance of inequality.[5] The inequality sense is now the main one, applied to differences in age, rank, wages or wealth.[14][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1555 – unlikeness, dissimilarity.[13][2]
  • 1597 – inequality of rank, condition or circumstances, in Hooker.[5][8]
  • before 1682 – with a plural, an instance of inequality, in Sir Thomas Browne.[5]
  • 1755 – Johnson defines it as inequality, a difference in degree.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A marked inequality or difference, as in age, rank, pay or quantity: the growing disparity between city and country incomes.[14][3][5]
  2. An instance of such inequality: regional disparities in health care.[5][6]
  3. Unlikeness, dissimilarity or incongruity.[14][5][6]

Usage notes

Collins warns against using discrepancy where disparity is meant: a discrepancy is a difference between things that ought to be the same, while a disparity is a large difference between measurable things such as ages or wages.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  13. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins