Budget

How to spell budget

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce budget

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does budget mean?

1. nounA plan that sets out expected income and how much money may be spent.
2. verbTo plan how money or another resource will be allocated and spent.

Budget in a sentence

• noun

  The household budget left little room for unexpected repairs.

• verb

  They had to carefully budget for the wedding and the honeymoon.

• noun

  The marketing team overspent its annual budget by March.

• verb

  Freelancers must budget for quiet months when work is scarce.

Where does budget come from?

Language of origin: French

This word began as the Old French bougette, a diminutive meaning 'little bag' or 'small leather pouch'. That word came from bouge, a leather sack, which in turn descends from the Latin bulga, meaning a leather bag or knapsack, a term Latin itself probably borrowed from a Gaulish (Celtic) source. English took the word in during the 1400s, at first simply for a pouch or wallet and the contents it carried. The modern financial sense arose in the 1700s from a vivid image: the Chancellor of the Exchequer was said 'to open the budget', that is, to open his bag and lay out the nation's accounts. From that ceremony the meaning shifted to the plan of income and spending itself, while the homely 'little bag' origin explains the soft -dg- spelling that learners must remember.

How the word is built

• budg- (from Old French bougette: little bag)
• -et (diminutive suffix)