spend

Pronunciation

• IPA: /spend/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English spenden (“to pay out”),^[2][3][4] from Old English -spendan, as in forspendan “to use up”,^[2][3] borrowed from Medieval Latin spendere, a shortening of Latin expendere (“to weigh out money, pay down”),^[2][3][5] the source of expend, or possibly of dispendere (“to pay out”).^[2] The word was borrowed widely in Germanic: Old High German spendōn, German spenden, Old Norse spenna.^[2][6] The Middle English word is partly also an aphetic form of dispend, from Old French despendre, from Latin dispendere.^[4][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

“To pay out money”: about 1175.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

Of anything with value, such as labour, thought or time, “to consume, use up”, is from about 1300,^[2] and “to consume wastefully” by the late 14th century.^[2] “To exhaust, wear oneself out” is from the 1590s; compare spent.^[2] To spend and be spent is from 1611.^[8] Spendthrift, in which thrift means “savings, wealth”, is from 1601.^[3][6] The noun, “an act of spending, an amount spent”, is from before 1688.^[8] In East Anglia spend also meant “to span with the fingers”, from Old Norse spenna.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – to pay out money.^[3][8]
• c. 1300 – to use up time or effort.^[2]
• late 14th century – to waste.^[2]
• 1590s – to exhaust oneself.^[2]
• 1601 – spendthrift.^[3]
• before 1688 – noun, an amount spent.^[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To pay out money.
2. To pass time in a particular way or place: spent the summer abroad.
3. To use up; to exhaust: the storm spent itself.
4. To give effort or energy to something.

Noun

1. (informal) An amount of money spent.

Word family

• spendable
• spender
• underspend
• misspend
• outspend
• overspend
• spendthrift
• spendy

Related words

• expend
• expense
• dispense
• spent

Usage notes

Spend, disburse and expend share the meaning “to pay or give out money or an equivalent in return for something”.^[10]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin