subsidize

Etymology

It is formed from English subsidy + -ize.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The OED compares the earlier verb subsidy, recorded from 1656, perhaps modelled on Middle French subsidier.^[2] Subsidy is from Anglo-Norman subsidie, from Old French subside (“help, aid”),^[2][3][8] from Latin subsidium (“help; reserve troops”),^[3][8][6][9] formed from sub- (“under, behind”) and sedeō (“to sit”);^[9][8][6] Etymonline connects it with subsīdō (“to settle down, stay”), the source of subside.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pay a country or its ruler to provide military help or to stay neutral: 1753 in the OED's revised entry,^[2] 1755 in Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb first belonged to 18th-century diplomacy and war, where a subsidy was money one state paid another for troops or neutrality.^[2][3] From 1776 it was also used of hiring mercenary or foreign troops.^[2] By the 1790s it had widened to buying a person's services with money or bribes.^[2][3] From 1798 it meant supporting an organization or activity with grants of money, especially public money, the main sense today.^[2][4] Etymonline dates this sense to 1828.^[3] Since 1852 it has also been used of funding a subversive scheme.^[2]

Timeline

• 1753 – to pay a country or ruler for military help or neutrality.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it to 1755.^[3][4]
• 1776 – to pay mercenary or foreign troops.^[2]
• 1793 – to secure a person's services by payment or bribery.^[2]
• 1798 – to support an organization or activity with grants of money.^[2]
• 1852 – to fund a subversive scheme.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To support with a subsidy, especially to help pay for a business, service or product with public money: The city subsidizes bus fares for students.^[4][10][2]
2. To buy the help of someone, especially a foreign state or troops, by paying a subsidy.^[4][10][2]

Word family

• subsidization
• subsidizer
• subsidizable

Related words

• subside
• subsidy
• subsidiary
• sit

Usage notes

The spelling subsidise is chiefly British.^[4][7][10]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins