expenditure

Etymology

It is from Medieval Latin expenditus, an irregular past participle, formed after venditus (“sold”), of expendō (“to weigh out, pay out”), with the suffix -ure.^[2][3][4][5] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford describe it as formed from expend after the obsolete expenditor, an officer in charge of expenditure.^[6][7] Merriam-Webster also takes the stem from that noun,^[8] and Klein says the word was coined by the British statesman Edmund Burke.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of spending money: 1769, in Edmund Burke's Observations on a Late State of the Nation.^[2][3][8] Dictionary.com dates it to 1760–70.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Within fifty years the word was applied to things other than money: the amount spent (1791),^[2][3] the using up or consumption of something (1812, in Wellington's dispatches), and the spending of energy, labour or time, often with a sense of waste (1821, in Charles Lamb).^[2] The Shorter Oxford quotes Adam Smith for the expenditure of public revenue.^[7]

Timeline

• 1769 – the act of spending money, in Burke.^[2][3]
• 1791 – the amount spent.^[2][3]
• 1812 – consumption, using up.^[2]
• 1821 – the spending of energy or time.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The act of spending or using up money, time, effort or resources.
2. The amount of money spent: The council cut its expenditure on roads.

Word family

• overexpenditure
• capital expenditure

Related words

• expend
• expense
• spend

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.