impute

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English imputen, earlier inputen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French imputer, also emputer,^[5][6][7][8] and directly borrowed from Latin imputō (“to bring into the reckoning, charge, ascribe”),^[2][6][3] formed from in- (“in, into”) and putō (“to clear up, settle an account; reckon”).^[5][6][7] Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com give only the Latin source,^[4][9] and the OED only the French.^[5] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1323–25, already meaning to lay to someone's charge.^[10] Etymonline, after Watkins, traces the Latin verb, which also meant "to trim, prune", to a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *pau- (“to cut, strike, stamp”).^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To lay a fault to someone's charge: about 1375, as inputen, according to Barnhart,^[3] and in the Higden translation of probably before 1425, of an error that might be imputed to a bishop.^[2][3] The OED's first quotation, in the legends of saints, is from a manuscript of about 1480.^[5] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of account: the Latin verb meant to enter something in the reckoning,^[5][11][7] and English kept the idea of entering a fault against someone's name.^[5][12] From 1574 it could also be used in a good sense, of setting something to a person's credit,^[5] though Johnson (1755) still noted that it was generally used of ill and only sometimes of good.^[13] It had a theological sense from 1583: to ascribe righteousness or guilt to someone by vicarious substitution.^[5][12] The verse Johnson quotes, "it was imputed to him for righteousness", is Romans 4:22.^[13] The plain sense of reckoning or considering lasted from 1532 to 1794,^[5] and that of accusing someone directly is now rare or obsolete.^[5][7] In 1893, in a translation of Wieser's Natural Value, the verb entered economics for assigning a value to a product by inference from what it helps to produce,^[5] and Collins records the related commercial use of giving a notional value to goods or services whose real value is unknown.^[14] A noun impute, imputation, is known only from before 1657;^[5] the usual noun imputation dates from 1545.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1375 – inputen, to charge a fault to a person.^[3]
• 1532 – to reckon, regard, consider (obsolete after 1794).^[5]
• 1574 – to set something to a person's credit.^[5]
• 1583 – in theology, to ascribe righteousness or guilt by vicarious substitution.^[5]
• 1594 – to impart (obsolete after 1674).^[5]
• 1596 – to accuse, tax with a fault.^[5]
• before 1657 – noun, imputation, charge (obsolete).^[5]
• 1893 – in economics, to attribute value to a product by inference.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To attribute something, usually something bad, to a person or cause; to lay the blame for it there: The inquiry imputed the crash to a worn brake cable.^{[14][8][4][5]}
2. To credit or ascribe a quality to someone or something: the wisdom popularly imputed to owls.^[8][4][5]
3. (theology) To ascribe righteousness or guilt to a person by vicarious substitution.^[5][7][4]
4. (economics, commerce) To assign a value to a product or service by inference, when its real value is unknown.^[5][7][14]
5. (obsolete) To accuse someone of a fault.^[5][7][4]
6. (obsolete, 1532–1794) To reckon, regard or consider.^[5][7][4]
7. (obsolete, 1594–1674) To impart.^[5][7]

Word family

• imputability
• imputable
• imputatively
• imputativeness
• imputedly
• imputer
• imputation
• imputed

Related words

• putative
• dispute
• compute
• count
• amputate
• repute
• deputy

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins