distributive

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English distributif,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French distributif^{[5][6][7][8][9][2]} and directly borrowed from Late Latin distribūtīvus (“apportioning”),^[6][7][8][2] a word used by Priscian.^[5] The Latin adjective is from distribuō (“to divide, deal out in portions”),^[6][9][7][3] formed from dis- (“individually”) and tribuō (“to pay, assign, grant”),^[6][5] which comes from tribus, the source of tribe.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In grammar, of a word that picks out individuals, such as euerych (each): about 1450, in the Battlefield grammar.^[2] The OED's first record is the sense "dealing out, giving freely", in 1475 in the Boke of Noblesse,^[5][2] which the Middle English Dictionary dates as perhaps composed about 1451, and Etymonline gives the mid 15th century.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Two lines ran from the start: bestowing or dealing out in portions, and the grammarians' individualizing sense.^[2][5] Etymonline dates the plain sense "that distributes" to the 1510s.^[6] The noun, a distributive word, is recorded from 1530 in Palsgrave.^[5] distributive justice, Aristotle's justice of giving shares, one of his two divisions, entered English in 1531 in Elyot's Boke Named the Gouernour,^[5] and Johnson (1755) gave it as his example of the first sense, the justice that allots to each his claim.^[10] A tendency to spread out is recorded from 1628.^[5] Logic took up the word in 1725, in Watts, for a statement about each member of a class separately rather than the class as a whole.^[5][6] Mathematics followed in 1855,^[5] and geology in 1904 with a fault spread over several parallel planes.^[5][8] In 1912 Belloc's Servile State applied it to a political system in which property is owned by as many people as possible.^[5][8]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – in grammar, individualizing, of a word such as euerych.^[2]
• 1475 – dealing out in portions, giving freely.^[5][2]
• 1520 – expressing distribution among individuals.^[5]
• 1530 – noun, a distributive word.^[5]
• 1531 – distributive justice.^[5]
• 1600 – of or arising from distribution.^[5]
• 1628 – tending to spread out.^[5]
• 1725 – in logic, referring to each member of a class separately.^[5][6]
• 1855 – in mathematics, operating on every part in operating on the whole.^[5]
• 1904 – in geology, of a fault spread over several parallel planes.^[5]
• 1912 – of a political system with property widely owned.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or arising from distribution: the distributive effects of a new tax.^{[11][12][3][5]}
2. Serving to divide and hand out in portions.^[11][3][5]
3. (grammar) Referring to each individual of a group separately, as each and every do.^[12][5][8]
4. (logic) Referring to each member of a class separately and not to the class as a whole.^[5][6][8]
5. (mathematics) Of an operation, giving the same result whether applied to a sum as a whole or to each of its terms in turn, as multiplication does over addition.^[11][12][5]
6. (geology) Of a fault, spread over several closely spaced parallel planes.^[5][8]

Noun

1. (grammar) A distributive word.^[12][3][5]

Word family

• distributively
• distributiveness
• distributivity
• nondistributive
• distributive education

Related words

• distribute
• distribution
• tribute
• tribe
• contribute
• attribute

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e 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 k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins