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installment

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Etymology and origin of the English word installment

English has two words spelled installment (British instalment): one meaning the act of installing, from install, and one meaning a part payment, an alteration of the obsolete estallment.[1][2][3][4]

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɪnˈstɔːl.mənt/[5]

installment1 act of installing

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1589
Ultimate origins
Middle French installerEnglish -ment
Etymology tree of installment1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin stallum
Latin installo
English install
English installment
French installer
From the same root · installment1
Latin installatio ← installo

Etymology

The act of installing is formed from English install + -ment.[1][2][3][4][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Induction into an office, the act of installing someone: 1589 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster,[2][4] the 1580s in Etymonline.[3]

Semantic evolution

From the late 16th to the early 17th century the word could also mean the seat or place in which a person was installed,[6][4] and Johnson (1755) gave both senses, quoting Shakespeare for each.[8] The Shorter Oxford marks the word now rare in this sense, which installation has largely taken over.[6][9]

Timeline

  • 1589 – the act of installing; induction into an office.[2][4]
  • late 16th century – a seat in which one is installed (obsolete by the early 17th century).[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (rare) The act of installing someone or something, or the state of being installed; installation.[4][6][9]
  2. (obsolete) The seat or place in which a person is installed.[4][6][8]

installment2 part payment

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1732 T. Hearne
From
Anglo-Norman estalement
Ultimate origin
Old French estal

Etymology

The part payment is an alteration of the obsolete estallment, also estalment, the arrangement for paying a debt by instalments,[2][4][6][10] recorded by Barnhart from 1577 and by the OED from 1587.[2][11] According to Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English, that word is from Anglo-Norman estalement,[12][10] from estaler (“to fix, place”),[10][12][13][4] while Barnhart takes it as probably formed in English from the Old French verb with -ment.[2] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the late 13th century in the sense of paying, or allowing a debt to be paid, by instalments.[14] It comes from estal (“fixed position, place, stall”),[3][4][2] of Germanic origin, akin to Old High German stal (“standing place”) and to English stall.[3][4][15] The spelling with in- is probably due to association with the installing sense of the word or with installation;[6][12][10] Barnhart finds it first in a verb install, to pay by instalments (1679).[2] The OED instead derives it from install with the same suffix, or from in- and stalment.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The arrangement for paying a sum of money in fixed portions at fixed times: 1732, in T. Hearne.[11][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, the arrangement itself, was obsolete by the 1770s.[11][6] From 1776, in A. Smith's “Wealth of Nations”, the word meant each of the portions of a sum paid at different times.[11][3][4] By 1823 it was used more generally of any part of something supplied or produced before the rest,[11][3] hence a part of a serial story or a programme issued in parts.[9][4] The installment plan, buying on credit by regular payments, is recorded from 1894.[3] The spelling instalment is now usual in Britain and installment in the United States.[11][9]

Timeline

  • 1577 – estallment, the arrangement for paying a debt in parts.[2]
  • 1679 – install, to pay by instalments.[2]
  • 1732 – the arrangement of payment by fixed portions (obsolete by 1775).[11]
  • 1776 – each of the portions of a sum payable at different times.[11][3][4]
  • 1823 – one of several parts supplied or produced at different times.[11][3]
  • 1894 – installment plan.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. One of the portions, usually equal, into which a debt or sum is divided for payment at set intervals: They paid for the sofa in twelve monthly installments.[9][4][11]
  2. One of several parts of something issued or published at intervals, such as an episode of a serial.[9][4][11]

Adjective

  1. Relating to or based on periodic payments: an installment loan.[4]

Word family

  • installment plan
  • noninstallment

References

  1. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 f g h i j k l m n o p q Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  15. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Installment.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/installment. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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