English
disparity
Disparity comes from Latin dispār ‘unlike, dissimilar, different, disparate,…’, and goes back to pār ‘even (of a number)’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpār‘even (of a number)’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdispār‘unlike, dissimilar, different, disparate, unequal’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdisparitātem
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600disparité
- Englishearliest quotation 1841disparity
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpār‘even (of a number)’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdispār‘unlike, dissimilar, different, disparate, unequal’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEdisparitātem
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600disparité
- Englishearliest quotation 1841disparity
Earliest quotation: 1841, –November, Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 12.: “With no great disparity between them in point of…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *perh₂- ‘to exchange, sell’
through Latin pār ‘even (of a number)’
Today it means
noun The state of being unequal; difference.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin pār / disparity