installment

English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • enPR: ĭn-stôlʹmənt, IPA(key): /ɪnˈstɔːlmənt/

Etymology 1

From install +‎ -ment, install from Old French installer, from Medieval Latin installare, from Medieval Latin in- and Medieval Latin stallum, stall from a Germanic source (compare Old High German stal)

Noun

installment (plural installments)

  1. The act of installing; installation.
    • Milton
      Take oaths from all kings and magistrates at their installment, to do impartial justice by law.
  2. (obsolete) The seat in which one is placed.
    • Shakespeare
      The several chairs of order, look, you scour; […] Each fair installment, coat, and several crest / With loyal blazon, evermore be blest.
Synonyms
Translations

Etymology 2

A 1732 alteration of estallment, from Anglo-Norman estaler (“fix payments”), from Old French estal (“fixed position”), from Old High German stal (“stall", "standing place”)

The sense of "part of a whole produced in advance of the rest" is from 1823.

Noun

installment (plural installments)

  1. A portion of a debt, or sum of money, which is divided into portions that are made payable at different times. Payment by installment is payment by parts at different times, the amounts and times (often equal namely regular, e.g. mensual) being often definitely stipulated.
  2. A part of a broadcast or published serial.
  3. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) Anything that is performed in parts, spread over time.
Usage notes

For this sense in the UK, the OED permits only the spelling instalment. Commonwealth usage varies.

Synonyms
  • (portion of a debt):
  • (part of a broadcast or published serial): episode, part
Translations

References

  • installment in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
  • “installment” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.
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