distribution

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˌdɪs.trɪˈbjuː.ʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English distribucioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French distribution, 13th century,^[2] and directly from Latin distribūtiō (“a division, distribution”) (accusative distribūtiōnem),^[2][4] a noun of action from the past participle of distribuere (“to divide, deal out in portions”),^[2] from dis- “individually” and tribuere (“to pay, assign, grant; to allot among the tribes”),^[2] from tribus “tribe”.^[2] It is related to distribute, tribute and tribe.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of dividing and dealing out in portions: 1382 in the OED,^[5] the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

“That which is distributed or apportioned” is from the late 14th century.^[2] The act of spreading out over a surface or space is from the 1580s,^[2] 1589 in the OED.^[5] The orderly division of a whole into classes is from 1605.^[5] In political economy, the division of a society's produce among its members is from 1793,^[5] and in statistics the way a measurement is spread over a population from 1854.^[5] In linguistics, the occurrence of an element in its characteristic environments, it is from 1933.^[5] The geographic range of a plant or animal and the marketing of goods to consumers came later.^[6][7] Distributional is from 1804.^[2]

Timeline

• 1382 – a dealing out.^[5]
• late 14th century – a thing distributed.^[2]
• 1589 – a spreading over a space.^[5]
• 1793 – in economics.^[5]
• 1854 – in statistics.^[5]
• 1933 – in linguistics.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The act of distributing, or the state of being distributed; apportionment.
2. Something distributed; an allotment.
3. The spreading out of something over an area; diffusion.
4. The geographic range of a living thing.
5. The process of supplying goods to shops and consumers.
6. In statistics, the set of values a variable takes and how often it takes them.

Word family

• distributional

Related words

• distributee
• distributive
• distributor
• distribute
• tribute
• tribe
• attribute
• contribute

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster