Etymologically
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spend

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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
  • 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