early 15c., from Old French imputer, emputer (14c.) and directly from Latin imputare "to reckon, make account of, charge, ascribe," from assimilated form of in- "in, into" (from PIE root *en "in") + putare "to trim, prune; reckon, clear up, settle (an account)," from PIE *puto- "cut, struck," suffixed form of root *pau- (2) "to cut, strike, stamp." Related: Imputed; imputing.

1540s, noun of action from impute (v.) on model of French imputation, or else from Late Latin imputationem (nominative imputatio) "a charge, an account," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin imputare "to charge, ascribe."

"to scold, chide vehemently, rebuke," late 14c., raten, probably from Old French rateir, variant of reter "to impute blame, accuse, find fault with," from Latin reputare "to count over, reflect," in Vulgar Latin, "to impute, blame," from re- "repeatedly" (see re-) + putare "to judge, suppose, believe, suspect" (originally "to clean, trim, prune," from PIE root *pau- (2) "to cut, strike, stamp"). Related: Rated; rating.

Old French reter also was borrowed into Middle English as retten "to blame" (c. 1300); also "to attribute, impute" (late 14c.), "to consider, think about" (late 14c.).

also mischaracterise, "impute a wrong character to," by 1798, from mis- (1) "badly, wrongly" + characterize. Related: Mischaracterized; mischaracterizing; mischaracterization.

late 15c., "action of bestowing or assigning," from Latin attributionem (nominative attributio) "an assignment, attribution," noun of action from past-participle stem of attribuere "assign, allot; ascribe, impute," from assimilated form of ad "to" (see ad-) + tribuere "assign, give, bestow" (see tribute). Meaning "thing attributed" is recorded from 1580s.

c. 1200, in reference to the Christian virtue, "benevolent, kind, manifesting Christian love in its highest and broadest form," from Old French charitable, from charité (see charity). Meaning "liberal in treatment of the poor" is from c. 1400; that of "inclined to impute favorable motives to others" is from 1620s. Related: Charitableness; charitably.

1590s, "action of adding in writing;" c. 1600, "attribution of authorship or origin," from Latin ascriptionem (nominative ascriptio) "an addition in writing," noun of action from past-participle stem of ascribere "to write in, add to in a writing; impute, attribute," from ad "to" (see ad-) + scribere "to write" (from PIE root *skribh- "to cut").