English → Latin
“spend” in Latin
pōnōto place; to put; to lay; to ordain; to appoint; to make (something); to set up; to pitch (camp)collocōto place, put, set in order, assign, arrange; to put together, assemble; to settlecōnsūmōto take wholly or completely; to consume, devour, waste, squander, use up; annihilate, destroy, bring to naught; to killadhibeōto extend, hold out; to attend (to), handle, look after; to apply, adopt, employdēgōto pass time or spend time; to live; to continue, endureagōto act, to behave; to do; to make (something that does not continue to exist after the maker stops)trānsigōto thrust through; to pierce; to stab; to spend (time); to finish, accomplish, settle, complete, conclude, transact (a p
The English word spend itself goes back to Latin pendō, through expendere.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
spend
To lay out, apply, convertere aliquid in aliquem rem: conferre aliquid ad aliquem rem: ponere, collocare, consumere, conterere aliquid in aliqua re: adhibere, impendere aliquid alicui rei: erogare aliquid in aliquam rem (☞ not alicui rei; e.g., in ludos, not ludis).
To pass (time), degere: agere: transigere (e.g., diem, vitam, or aetatem). To spend, (time) in anything or with anyone, (tempus) ducere aliqua re (e.g., noctem jucundis sermonibus); consumere or conterere aliqua re or in aliqua re (to consume, bestow upon anything, or, in a bad sense, to throw it away): absumere aliqua re (to spend uselessly, to waste; e.g., tempus dicendo, diem frigidis rebus): extrahere aliqua re (to wear out, to protract, without any result; always used of spending time in talk, etc., instead of action). To spend one’s whole life in study, totam vitam in studiis litterarum conterere, absumere, or consumere; aetatem ducere in litteris: to spend one’s life in idleness and entertainments, vitam in otio et conviviis agere: to spend one’s life in travelling, aetatem suam consumere in perpetua peregrinatione: to spend whole days over the fire, totos dies juxta focum atque ignem agere: to spend the whole day in running about, totum diem cursando atque ambulando conterere: to spend a day with anyone, diem cum aliquo ponere (Cic., ad Fam., 5, 21, 3): I spent three days with him, triduum cum eo fui: let us spend this day merrily, hilare hunc consumamus diem (after Terentianus, Ad., 2, 4, 23, where sumamus is only poetic; Vid: Ruhnken. in loc.): to spend the night in a place, pernoctare aliquo loco (to pass the night); manere aliquo loco (to remain anywhere during the night; e.g., in tabernaculo; inter vicos et vias; usually with the idea that one cannot travel further or find a lodging elsewhere; Vid: Ruhnken: Suet., Caes., 39): to spend the night with anyone, pernoctare cum aliquo or apud aliquem. To SPEND ITSELF, absumi: consumi.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for spend?
- The usual Latin words for “spend” are pōnō, collocō, cōnsūmō; also adhibeō, dēgō, agō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.