Added 9 October 2026
dispatch
/dɪˈspæt͡ʃ/ verb
In Latin: ablēgātiō First recorded: 1517 Wiktionary
verb Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about dispatch at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
noun
- A message sent quickly, as a shipment, a prompt settlement of a business, or an important official message sent by a diplomat, government official, military officer, etc.
-
The act of doing something quickly.
We must act with dispatch in this matter.
- A mission by an emergency response service, typically involving attending to an emergency in the field.
Origin
Borrowed from Spanish despachar and/or Italian dispacciare. Further etymology is uncertain. For first element des-, see dis-. Second element probably from either Vulgar Latin *pactāre (“to fasten"”), *pactiare or Latin -pedicāre (“to entrap, shackle”), from pedica, from pēs. Ultimately related to impeach through shared Latin root. The first known use in writing (in the past tense, spelled as dispached) is by Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall in 1517. This would be unusually early for a borrowing from a Romance language other than French, but Tunstall had studied in Italy and was Commissioner to Spain, so this word may have been borrowed through diplomatic circles.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)