- expense
- 1382, from Anglo-Fr. expense, O.Fr. espense "money provided for expenses," from L.L. expensa "disbursement, outlay, expense," prop. neut. pl. pp. of L. expendere "to weigh out money, to pay down" (see expend). Expensive first recorded 1628 with a sense of "given to profuse expenditure," but by 1634 meaning "costly." L. spensa also yielded M.L. spe(n)sa, whose sense specialized to "outlay for provisions," then "provisions, food," which was borrowed into O.H.G. as spisa and is the root of Ger. Speise "food," now mostly meaning prepared food, and speisen "to eat."