supply

pronunciation

How to pronounce supply in British English: UK [səˈplaɪ] word uk audio image

How to pronounce supply in American English: US [səˈplaɪ] word us audio image

Noun:

an amount of something available for use
offering goods and services for sale
the activity of supplying or providing something
Verb:

provide or furnish with
circulate or distribute or equip with
provide what is desired or needed, especially support, food or sustenance
state or say further

Word Origin

supply: supply: [14] Latin supplēre meant ‘fill up, complete’. It was a compound verb formed from the prefix sub- ‘under, from below’, hence ‘up’, and plēre ‘fill’ (source of English accomplish, complete, etc). The sense ‘provide’ evolved via the notion of ‘making good a deficiency, fulfilling a need’. The original meaning is better preserved in supplement [14], whose Latin ancestor supplēmentum was derived from supplēre.=> accomplish, complete, full, plus, supplement, surplus

supply (v.): late 14c., "to help, support, maintain," also "fill up, make up for," from Old French soupplier "fill up, make full" (Modern French suppléer) and directly from Latin supplere "fill up, make full, complete," from sub "up from below" (see sub-) + plere "to fill" (see pleio-). The meaning "furnish, provide" first recorded 1520s. Related: Supplied; supplying.

supply (n.): early 15c., "assistance, relief, act of supplying," from supply (v.). Meaning "that which is provided, quantity or amount of something provided" is attested from c. 1600. Meaning "person who temporarily takes the place of another" (especially a minister or preacher) is from 1580s. In the political economy sense (corollary of demand (n.)) it dates from 1776; supply-side (adj.) in reference to economic policy is attested from 1976; as a noun by 1922. Supplies "necessary provisions held for distribution and use" is from c. 1650.

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