Etymologically
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invoice

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɪnˌvɔɪs/[1]

Etymology

It is apparently borrowed from Middle French envois, plural of envoi (“sending, dispatch of goods”), from envoyer (“to send”), with an altered spelling;[2][3][4][5] in Old French envois was also a nominative singular.[2] The OED, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it more exactly as the plural of the obsolete noun invoy, an invoice, recorded in 1617, which is a variant of envoi.[6][7][8][9][10] The OED explains the spelling of the plural ending with c by dice, mice and pence, and the later use as a singular by bodice and truce, but notes that invoy is recorded late and rarely and that no earlier envoy with this meaning is found.[6] Weekley and the OED compare French lettre d'envoi (“letter of consignment, invoice”),[11][6] and Weekley thinks the form may have been influenced by advice in its business sense.[11] The French verb comes from Vulgar Latin *inviō (“to send on one's way”), from Latin in (“on”) and via (“road”).[5] Johnson (1755) thought it perhaps a corruption of envoyez (“send”).[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A list of goods shipped or sent to an agent or buyer, with their values or prices: 1560, in a letter of W. Merrick and B. Sanders printed in Hakluyt.[6][2][3] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date it to the 1550s.[5][13]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged at first to overseas trade: Johnson (1755) defined it as a catalogue of a ship's freight, or of the goods and prices sent by a factor.[12] It was used attributively, as in invoice-book and invoice price, from 1678.[6] The verb, to enter goods in an invoice, followed in 1698, in J. Fryer's account of the East Indies and Persia,[6][2][3] and later also meant to send an invoice to a person.[6][14] From 1881 invoice was also used loosely for a consignment of invoiced goods,[6] a sense the Shorter Oxford calls rare.[14]

Timeline

  • 1560 – a list of goods sent, with their prices and charges.[6][2][3]
  • 1617 – invoy, an invoice.[6]
  • 1678 – attributive, as in invoice-book, invoice price.[6]
  • 1698 – verb, to enter in an invoice.[6][2][3]
  • 1881 – a consignment of invoiced goods.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An itemized list of goods or services supplied, stating the prices and the sum due; a bill: The plumber's invoice arrived a week later.[4][3][14][6]
  2. (rare) A consignment of goods sent with an invoice.[3][14][6]

Verb

  1. To send an invoice to a customer: The agency invoices its clients every month.[4][3][14][6]
  2. To list goods on an invoice.[4][6][14]

Word family

  • uninvoiced

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press