stipulation

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin stipulātiō (“a promise, bargain, covenant”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a noun of action from stipulātus, the past participle of stipulor (“to exact a promise, bargain”).^[3][5][7][6] The OED compares French stipulation, Spanish estipulación and Italian stipulazione,^[2] and Skeat and Johnson took the word through French.^[8][9] The origin of the Latin verb is uncertain.^[3][5][10] According to the Roman jurist Paulus it came from an old adjective Latin stipulus (“firm”), which the OED connects, if genuine, with stīpes (“log, trunk”) and stīpō (“to pack tightly”).^[2][5] The traditional derivation from stipula (“stalk, straw”), with reference to a symbolic breaking of a straw, is rejected by most scholars,^[3][8][5] though de Vaan, as quoted by Etymonline, suggests that the verb first meant "to draw or cut straws".^[3] The verb stipulate is probably a back-formation from this noun.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

An engagement or undertaking to do something: 1552, in Huloet's English–Latin dictionary,^[2][5][3] a sense obsolete by the early 18th century.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a promise or undertaking and then, from 1649 (in Milton), a contract or treaty; both senses are now obsolete.^[2][4] In legal use it named the formal oral contract of Roman law, made by question and answer (from before 1623),^[2][7] the giving of security for an undertaking (1648),^[2] and in the United States an agreement between opposing counsel about the conduct of a case (1817).^[2][7] The modern sense, the specifying of a term of an agreement, or the term itself, is first recorded in 1750 in Samuel Johnson's Rambler,^[2][5][3] and the sense of insisting on something as a condition in 1792.^[2][3] Johnson's Dictionary (1755) defined it simply as "bargain".^[9] Etymonline dates the general sense "that which is agreed upon" to 1802.^[3]

Timeline

• 1552 – an undertaking to do something (obsolete by 1719).^[2][5]
• before 1623 – in Roman law, a contract made in the binding verbal form.^[2]
• 1648 – the giving of security for an undertaking.^[2]
• 1649 – a contract, agreement or treaty (obsolete by 1804).^[2]
• 1750 – the specifying of a term of an agreement; such a term.^[2][5][3]
• 1792 – the insisting on something as a condition; a condition insisted on.^[2][3]
• 1817 – in American law, an agreement between opposing counsel on the course of a case.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A condition or requirement specified in a contract, treaty, will or law: The lease carried a stipulation against keeping pets.^[7][11][2]
2. The act of stipulating.^[7][11]
3. (law) An agreement between the lawyers of opposing parties about the conduct of a case.^[7][2]
4. (Roman law) A formal contract made orally by question and answer.^[7][2][4]
5. (obsolete, 1552–1719) An undertaking to do something.^[2][4]
6. (obsolete, 1649–1804) A contract, agreement or treaty.^[2][4]

Word family

• stipulatory
• nonstipulation
• restipulation

Related words

• stipulate
• stipule

Usage notes

In botany a separate stipulation, the arrangement of the stipules on a plant, is recorded from 1760; it is formed from Latin stipula, a stalk.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ 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.
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt