English
compendious
Compendious comes from Latin compendiosus ‘advantageous, abridged, brief’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- ‘to stretch’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)pend-1‘to stretch’root named by Wiktionary
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcompendiosus1‘advantageous, abridged, brief’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400compendieux1
- Englishearliest quotation 1960compendious1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English compendious
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1960, New reading on railways: “AN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE RAILWAYS OF THE BRITISH…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)pend-Wiktionary, English compendious‘to stretch’root named by Wiktionary
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcompendiosusWiktionary, English compendious‘advantageous, abridged, brief’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400compendieuxWiktionary, English compendious
- Englishearliest quotation 1960compendiousWiktionary, English compendious. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1960, New reading on railways: “AN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE RAILWAYS OF THE BRITISH…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- ‘to stretch’
spend, expensive, span, pound, expense, pension, depend, compensation, expenditure, compensate, poise, pendant, appendix, perpendicular, peso, penthouse, pansy, expend, dispensation, pensive, piso, append, recompense, 18 more
Today it means
adj containing a subset of words, succinctly described; abridged and summarized
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “compendious”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- / compendious