stipulate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin stipulātus, the past participle of stipulor (“to demand a formal promise, bargain”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} or, for the OED and others, from its participial stem.^[7][8][9] Barnhart and Etymonline add that it is probably in part a back-formation from stipulation, recorded from 1552,^[3][2] itself from stipulātiō.^[3][7] The further origin of the Latin verb is doubtful.^[7][3][10] Paulus, about 200 AD, derived it from an Old Latin stipulus (“firm”),^[7] and Collins follows him.^[11] The OED and Barnhart connect that adjective, if genuine, with stīpes (“log, trunk”), stīpō (“to pack tightly”) and stiff,^[7][3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares Umbrian steplatu.^[4] The other tradition starts from stipula (“stalk, straw”), source of stipule, and a custom of breaking a straw to seal a bargain.^[3][5][8] Klein accepts it,^[5] Etymonline says that most authorities reject it,^[2] Ayto calls it unproved but a good story,^[10] and Weekley thought it rejected perhaps too readily.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make a bargain or contract, intransitive: before 1624 in Barnhart,^[3] about 1624 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[4] and the 1620s in Etymonline.^[2] The OED, not revised for this word, first quotes that sense before 1648, in Lord Herbert's Life.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a general verb of contracting, which the OED has down to 1785,^[7][2] and Johnson (1755) gave no other sense: to contract, to bargain, to settle terms.^[13] From 1656 it also named the technical Roman-law act, an oral contract made in the required form of question and answer.^[7][8] The sense that now leads is transitive: from 1645 for specifying something as an essential part of a contract,^[7][3] and later, from 1685, for one party insisting on it as a condition.^[7][2] The construction with for follows in 1790,^[7] as in Jane Austen's "He did not stipulate for any particular sum".^[8] A related line, to promise or guarantee, is recorded from 1737, and to stand surety for someone from 1692 to 1829.^[7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also has the verb for agreeing on the conduct of proceedings.^[4] The noun stipulation moved the same way, from an undertaking to a condition in an agreement by 1750.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1624 – to make a bargain or contract.^[3][4]
• 1645 – to specify as an essential part of a contract.^[7][3]
• 1656 – in Roman law, to make an oral contract in the required form.^[7]
• 1685 – to require as an essential condition.^[7][2]
• 1692 – to stand surety or bail (obsolete after 1829).^[7]
• 1737 – to promise or guarantee.^[7]
• 1790 – intransitive, to make an express demand for something as a condition.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To state something clearly as a condition of an agreement: The lease stipulates that the tenant must pay for repairs.^[11][7][8]
2. To demand something as a term of an agreement, followed by for: The agent stipulated for a larger fee.^[11][4][7]
3. (law) To agree on a matter in the conduct of legal proceedings.^[4]
4. (Roman law) To make an oral contract in the form of question and answer.^[11][7][8]
5. To promise or guarantee.^[11][7]
6. (obsolete, 1648–1785) To make a bargain or covenant.^[7][2][13]

Word family

• stipulator

Related words

• stipulation
• stipule

Usage notes

A botanical adjective stipulate, /ˈstɪpjʊlət/, having stipules, is recorded from 1776 and has a separate source: New Latin stipulātus, from stipula.^[7][4][8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
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.