Attributed

How to spell attributed

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce attributed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does attributed mean?

1. verbRegarded as belonging to, caused by, or created by a particular person or thing (past tense of attribute).

Attributed in a sentence

• The unsigned landscape was long attributed to a Dutch master.

• The accountant attributed the shortfall to a simple data entry error.

Where does attributed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past form of the verb 'attribute', which descends from the Latin attribuere, meaning 'to assign to' or 'to allot'. That verb was built from ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward', and tribuere, meaning 'to allot, bestow, or grant'. The root tribuere is itself connected to tribus, the word for a 'tribe' or division of the Roman people, because allotting things originally meant distributing them among those divisions. English took the word in during the 1400s, partly through Old French, first in the sense of granting a quality or crediting a deed to someone. The same tribuere root surfaces in the related words 'tribute', 'contribute', and 'distribute', all of which keep the single 't' followed by the 'rib' that the spelling of attributed shares.

How the word is built

• at- (assimilated form of ad-: to, toward)
• tribut (from Latin tribuere: to assign, allot)
• -ed (past tense / participle)