dispense

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dispensen, also dispencen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French dispenser (“to give out”),^{[3][4][5][2][6][7]} from Latin dispēnsō (“to distribute by weight, pay out, administer”).^[3][4][5][2] In Medieval Latin the verb also meant to exempt or pardon, and Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com take the English word partly directly from the Latin.^[8][9][2] The Latin verb is the frequentative of dispendō (“to weigh out, pay out”), formed from dis- (“out, apart”) and pendō (“to weigh; to pay”),^{[3][4][2][10][6]} which Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace to Proto-Indo-European *(s)pen-.^[3][4] The Old French verb became dépenser (“to spend”).^[7] Ayto notes that the Latin verb for "to weigh out" is a partial source of spend, and that the related pendeō (“to hang”) gave pendulum, pendant and penthouse.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To deal out or distribute: probably about 1350, as dispencen, according to Barnhart, and as dispensen in 1380;^[2] Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from Chaucer's translation of Boethius, about 1374.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Hoad divides the senses into two groups: dealing out and administering, and arranging or relaxing a rule by authority.^[7] The second came from Medieval Latin, where the verb meant to grant a licence to do what was forbidden, a power of popes and bishops, and hence to grant remission or exemption, often followed by Latin cum (“with”).^[2][3] By 1382 this was rendered as dispense with, to exempt someone,^[2][5] which then came to mean to do away with (1576) and to do without (1607);^[2] Etymonline dates these to the 1570s and about 1600.^[3] The verb also meant to administer a sacrament or justice (before 1398),^[5] and in medicine to make up a prescription (1541, in Elyot).^[5] Johnson (1755) gave "to deal out; to distribute" first.^[11] Etymonline notes that the older sense survives in dispensary.^[3] In Lincolnshire dispense with could mean to put up with.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – to deal out, distribute.^[2][3] The OED's first quotation is from about 1374, in Chaucer.^[5]
• 1382 – dispense with, to exempt a person from something.^[2][5]
• 1393 – to remit or condone an offence (obsolete by 1591).^[5]
• before 1398 – to administer a sacrament or justice.^[5]
• c. 1440 – to grant a dispensation from a law.^[5]
• 1541 – to make up medicine according to a prescription.^[5]
• 1576 – dispense with, to do away with.^[2][3]
• 1607 – dispense with, to do without.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give out in portions; to distribute: The machine dispenses hot drinks.^[13][8][5]
2. To prepare and give out medicine, especially on prescription.^[13][5][8]
3. To administer the law, justice or a sacrament.^[13][8][5]
4. dispense with: to do without; to get rid of: Let's dispense with the speeches and start eating.^[13][8][5]
5. To grant a dispensation to someone, releasing them from an obligation of church law.^[13][5]
6. To exempt or excuse.^[13][8]

Word family

• undispensed
• dispensary
• dispenser
• dispensable
• dispensation
• dispensatory

Related words

• dispend
• spend
• pension
• pendant
• pendulum
• spence

Usage notes

A separate noun dispense, expenditure, from Old French despense, is recorded from about 1320 to 1664 and is now obsolete;^[5][8] it survives in dispense bar, a bar in a club or hotel for the staff's use, recorded from 1934.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins