dividend
(ˈdɪvɪdənd)
Also 6–7 erron. dividente, -ent.
[a. F. dividende, in sense 4 (1300 in Anglo-Fr.), ad. L. dīvidend-um (that) which is to be divided, absol. use of neuter gerundive of dīvidĕre to divide. In early use often erroneously dividente, divident (-end being an unusual, and -ent a well-known ending), but in 17th c. conformed to the L. type. (The sense development is not clear, senses 3 and 4 being the earliest found.)]
1. Math. A number or quantity which is to be divided by another. (Correlative to divisor.)
| α 1542 Recorde Gr. Artes 126 b, Then begynne I at the hyghest lyne of the diuident, and seke how often I may haue the diuisor therin. 1608 R. Norton Stevin's Disme B ij, The number to be diuided (or diuident) and the number to diuide (or diuisor). |
| β 1557 Recorde Whetst. Z j, I see noe soche denomination in the diuidende. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. i. v. (ed. 7) 14 The dividend. 487. / The divisor. 53. (9. the quotient.) 1674 S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 31 Proceed as before to the end of the Dividend. 1806 Hutton Course Math. I. 16 The usual manner of placing the terms, is, the dividend in the middle, having the divisor on the left hand, and the quotient on the right, each separated by a curve line. c 1865 Circ. Sc. I. 437/1. |
2. A sum of money to be divided among a number of persons;
esp. the total sum payable as interest on a loan, or as the profit of a joint-stock company, divided periodically among the holders (usually reckoned at a certain rate per
cent.); also, the sum divided among the creditors of an insolvent estate.
to declare a dividend:
declare v. 5 d.
| 1623 W. Sclater Quaest. Tythes Revised 152 Will you mooue doubt whether Tithes entered the common Diuidend? 1643 Milton Soveraigne Salve 11 Profits and emoluments accrewing may make a dividend sufficient to draw to some unjust act. 1684 Lond. Gaz. No. 1948/4 The Creditors of Benjamin Hinton..are desired to meet..to receive an Accompt of their Trustees, and to advise of a Divident. 1710 Lond. Gaz. No. 4744/3 Warrants for the said Dividend will be delivered. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. (1869) I. ii. ii. 320 For some years past the Bank dividend has been at five and a half per cent. 1863 Fawcett Pol. Econ. ii. x. (1876) 271 Two-fifths of these profits form a fund from which the annual dividend on capital is paid. |
3. transf. A portion or share of anything divided;
esp. the share (of anything divided among a number of persons) that falls to each to receive or pay.
† a. gen. Obs. exc. as
fig. from b.
| α 1477 Norton Ord. Alch. vi. in Ashm. (1652) 97 Another Furnace..serving for Seperation of dividents. 1563–70 Foxe A. & M. (1583) 116 What portions or diuidentes ought to be made thereof. Ibid. 1513 The Kings subsidie..is committed vnto me in the Kings Roll a whole Summe in grosse, to be receyued of the Canons Residentiaries for their Diuident, who..cannot agree in deuiding. 1593 Nashe Christ's T. 81 Security the last deuident of Delicacy, it [sloth] includeth in it. 1661 J. Stephens Procurations 108 Which otherwise rested upon the Priest or Clerks or that Church to do from the allotted divident. |
| β 1600 Holland Livy xxxiii. xlvi. 850 The financies and revenues..were shared out in dividends between some certaine of the head citizens. 1670 Narborough Jrnl. in Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1711) 28 Divided all things equally..the Boys Dividend being as large as my own. 1779–81 Johnson L.P., Waller Wks. II. 264 The Panegyrick upon Cromwell has obtained..a very liberal dividend of praise. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xx. i. 266 What proportional dividend of man is a Stay maker? |
b. spec. The portion of interest on a loan, or profit from a joint-stock company, received by an individual holder as his share; the amount received by an individual creditor from an insolvent estate. Also
fig.| 1690 Lond. Gaz. No. 2596/4 Sir Edward Dering Deputy-Governor of the Hudsons Bay Company..Presented to his Majesty a Dividend in Gold, upon His Stock in the said Company. 1827 Jarman Powell's Devises (ed. 3) II. 337 A testatrix gave to trustees certain bank stock, upon trust to pay the dividends to her daughter M. for life. 1884 Acland & Jones Working Men Co-operators iii. 32 It is on the amount of her purchases at the shop that her dividend or share of profits is declared. 1965 Listener 16 Sept. 402/2 Nothing in fact will pay better dividends in the long run than a determined effort to discover what is actually going on in the Health Service. |
† 4. The action of dividing among a number of persons; distribution (
esp. of profits, or assets.)
Obs.| [1300 Act 28 Edw. I, Super Cartas ii, Et des choses issint par eus prises..soit faite dividende entre les prenours & les gardeins des feires.] |
| α 1535 Latimer Fruitf. Serm. i. Eph. vi. 10 By these meanes a diuident [ed. 1635 devision] of the spoyle was made. 1570 Levins Manip. 67/32 A diuident, diuidentia. 1634 in 4th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 126/2 The divident of corne is managed according to the ancient custome. |
| β 1647 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. lxvii. (1739) 165 Paying the Debts, and making Dividend of the overplus into the reasonable parts. 1675 Art Contentm. ix. iii. 224 If there were a common bank made of all mens troubles, most men would rather chuse to take those they brought, then to venter upon a new dividend. 1726 Adv. Capt. R. Boyle 292 So we resolv'd to steer for Zant..and there make Dividend of our Prize Money and Goods. |
5. attrib. and
Comb. dividend-stripping (see
quot. 1959); hence
dividend-stripper;
dividend warrant, the documentary order or authority on which a shareholder receives his dividend.
| 1716 Lond. Gaz. No. 5479/4 Lost..a Dividend Warrant on the South Sea Company. 1860 All Year Round No. 54. 88 He might be seen at the Bank of England about Dividend times. 1884 Harper's Mag. May 897/2 The dividend warrants are sent..by post. 1958 Times 22 Apr. 10/3 Nothing in the Budget created more concern among many Conservative backbenchers than the retrospective effect of the proposal by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to make the tax evading practice of ‘dividend stripping’ illegal—with effect from October, 1955. 1958 Punch 25 June 839/2 What Odhams and the Daily Herald had done was not indeed exactly the same as what the dividend-strippers had done, and Mr Houghton may have been right in saying that the object of that exercise was not to avoid taxation. 1959 Times 8 Apr. 17/2 Dividend-stripping (which is essentially a finance company operation for offsetting a dealing loss against tax reclaimed from dividends accumulated by the company which is the subject of the deal) was stopped some time ago. |
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Add:
[3.] c. A share in the payout from a football or other pool, received by a winner.
| 1929 People 13 Oct. 18/1 (Advt.), Our Pools pay the following dividends for Saturday, 5th October. 1937 E. Johnstone Profit from Football Pools i. 1 The difference, between the support given to football and racing pools, shows that something, more than the chances of winning big dividends, adds to the attraction of this form of weekend competition. 1952 Times 16 May 7/5 The winning of dividends in the football pools follows exactly the pattern of random selection. 1986 Financial Times 1 May 1/1 A syndicate of 11 Wiltshire hospital staff shared a {pstlg}1,017,890 football pool dividend, believed to be a record. |