dispenser (n.)
c. 1400, dispensour (mid-12c. as a surname), "one who administers" (a household, etc.), "one in charge of the distribution of goods and services," from Anglo-French dispensour, Old French despenseor, from Latin dispensator, agent noun from dispensare "disburse, administer, distribute (by weight);" see dispense. Meaning "a container that dispenses in fixed measure" is from 1918.
Entries linking to dispenser
mid-14c., dispensen, "to dispose of, deal or divide out," from Old French dispenser "give out" (13c.), from Latin dispensare "disburse, administer, distribute (by weight)," frequentative of dispendere "pay out," from dis- "out" (see dis-) + pendere "to hang, cause to hang; weigh; pay" (from PIE root *(s)pen- "to draw, stretch, spin").
In Medieval Latin, dispendere was used in the ecclesiastical sense of "grant licence to do what is forbidden or omit what is required" (a power of popes, bishops, etc.), and thus acquired a sense of "grant remission from punishment or exemption from law," hence the use of the English verb in the senses "to do away with" (1570s), "do without" (c. 1600). The older sense is preserved in dispensary. Related: Dispensed; dispensing.
updated on August 31, 2018
Dictionary entries near dispenser
dispel
dispensable
dispensary
dispensation
dispense
dispenser
dispersal
disperse
dispersion
dispirit
displace
