▪ I. invoice, n.
(ˈɪnvɔɪs)
Also 7 envoice, 7–8 invoyce.
[app. orig. = invoyes, pl. of invoy, corresp. to 16th c. F. envoy (now envoi), f. envoyer to send: cf. F. lettre d'envoi letter of consignment, invoice.
Inferentially, this derivation is satisfactory, both as to meaning and form. In- from F. and earlier Eng. en- is usual; and the writing of -ce for the plural -s is found in other words, as dice, mice, pence, in some of which also, as accidence, bodice, dace, truce, the resulting form is treated as a singular. But the historical record is not complete: the examples of invoy, invoyes, are scanty and not very early, and an earlier envoy in this sense is not exemplified.]
A list of the particular items of goods shipped or sent to a factor, consignee, or purchaser, with their value or prices, and charges.
| 1560 Let. in Hakluyt Voy. (1599) I. 308 We haue laden..twenty seuen pipes of bastards and seckes, as by the Inuoices herewith inclosed may appeare. 1622 Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 114 If a Factor, by a Letter of aduice, or by an Inuoyce of commodities which the Merchant sendeth, doe make a short entrie into the Custome house. 1628 Woodall Viaticum 10 The pills in the inuoyce of this Chest. 1670 Blount Law Dict., Invoice,..a particular of the value, custom, and charges of any goods sent by a Merchant in another mans Ship, and consign'd to a Factor or correspondent in another Country. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. iii. 111 The Dutch set the price, and wrote a List or Envoice of them, with the price on the Margin. 1809 R. Langford Introd. Trade 60 Inland Invoices are sometimes distinguished as buying or selling Invoices. 1840 Macaulay Ess., Clive (1887) 531 When the ablest servants of the English Company were busied only about invoices and bills of lading. |
b. loosely. A consignment of invoiced goods.
| 1881 P. Robinson Under the Punkah 39 Here and there, monster fungi clustered, like a condemned invoice of umbrellas and parasols. |
c. attrib., as invoice-book, invoice price, invoice weight, etc.
| 1678 J. Vernon Comptingho. 14 Some take the Tare as it is marked upon the several Casks, and that is called Invoice Tare, or Tare according to Factory. 1706 Phillips, Invoice-Tare, the Tare or Weight of the Cask, Bag, etc. in which Goods are put, mention'd in the Invoice, or Factor's Account. 1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs (1821) 9 Mogadore Tare is commonly reduced to British pounds by adding 20 per cent...to the Invoice weight. 1849 Freese Comm. Class-bk. 101 The Invoice-Book, in which are copied the Invoices received from, and sent abroad. It is..not unusual to have separate books for the two—then called ‘Inward Invoice-Book’, and ‘Outward Invoice-Book’. 1864 Daily Tel. 7 Sept., Did you buy these per invoice price or retail? |
▪ II. invoice, v.
(ˈɪnvɔɪs)
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To make an invoice of, to enter in an invoice. Also, to send or submit an invoice to (a person). Hence ˈinvoiced ppl. a., ˈinvoicing vbl. n.
Rarely occurs in written English, but common in speech. The contextual sense in quot. 1939 is not certain.
| 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 88 When they are publickly Invoiced, it will be at their own Wills to make their Bargains. 1800 Mrq. Wellesley in Owen Desp. (1877) 650 They should be invoiced at a reasonable and just price. 1855 Browning Old Pictures in Florence xxxii, No parcel that needs invoicing. 1883 Stubbs' Mercantile Circular 31 Oct. 980/1 You can recover the amount..from your customer, presuming you invoiced to him. 1888 Daily News 6 June 3/1 To impose on bottled sparkling wines of the invoiced value of over 30s. a dozen an additional duty of 5s. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake (1964) iii. 623 You invoiced him last Eatster so he ought to give us hockockles and everything. 1956 Invoicing Methods (Brit. Inst. Managem.) xv. 124 An opaque signal is placed over the ledger folio on the customer record in order to prevent subsequent orders from the customer being inadvertently stamped with the ledger folio as a sign that they may be invoiced in the ordinary way. 1972 Daily Tel. 12 July 11 (Advt.), I enclose my remittance of {pstlg}6 for the first ingot, and agree to pay for each subsequent ingot upon being invoiced on a monthly prepayment basis. |