Etymology: < dispatch v., or perhaps immediately < Italian dispaccio (also spaccio ) ‘a dispatch, a hastning, a riddance; also a pleeke or packet of letters’ (Florio) = Spanish despacho , Portuguese despacho , Romanic derivative < the verb stem: see dispatch v. Compare relation of depeach n., depeach v.

Etymology: Found early in 16th cent.: < Italian dispacciare ‘to dispatch, to hasten, to speed, to rid away any worke’ (Florio), or Spanish despachar to expedite, ‘to dispatch, to rid out of the way’ (Minsheu). The radical is the same as in Italian impacciare to entangle, hinder, stop, prevent, Spanish empachar , Portuguese empachar to impede, embarrass. Not related to French dépêcher , which gave the English depesshe , depeach n., common in 15–16th cent., rare after 1600, and apparently superseded by dispatch before 1650. The uniform English spelling from the first introduction of the word to the early part of the 19th cent. was with dis- ; but in Johnson's Dictionary the word was somehow entered under des- (although Johnson himself always wrote dispatch , which is also the spelling of all the authors cited by him); though this has, since c1820, introduced diversity into current usage, dispatch is to be preferred, as at once historical, and in accordance with English analogy; for even if this word had begun in Middle English with a form in des- from Old French (which it did not), it would regularly have been spelt dis- by 1500: see des- prefix, dis- prefix, prefixes. The notions of impede , expedite , are expressed by different roots in the northern and southern Romanic languages. The radical of French empêcher , dépêcher (English impeach v., depeach v.), Old French empeechier , despeechier , is taken to be a Latin *-pedicāre (extended form of im- , ex-pedīre , or derivative of pedica ‘fetter, gin’); compare prêcher , preach v., Old French preechier < Latin praedicāre . This also occurs in Provençal empedegar . But Spanish empachar , despachar , Provençal empaitar , point to a Latin type -pactāre ( < pactus , ‘fastened, fixed, fast’, past participle of pangĕre ). The radical of Italian im- , dis-pacciare , Provençal empachar (with which perhaps are to be taken dialect Old French empachier , ampauchier , dapauchier : see Godefroy), have been referred to a cognate Latin type -pactiāre (compare, for the phonology, Italian tracciare , docciare , succiare < *tractiāre , *ductiāre , *sūctiāre ). Thus, these words are quite distinct fromFrench empêcher , dépêcher , in 16th cent. also despecher , which gave English impeach , and depeach , also despeche , in Caxton depesshe , Scots depesche. Dispatch, therefore, could not be of French origin. The date of the first quot., 1517 at sense 1a, is early for a word from Italian, and still more so for a word from Spanish; but the active intercourse with the Papal Court and with Spain at that date may have facilitated the introduction of dispatch as a diplomatic word. Tunstall, the earliest authority for dispach(e, was Commissioner to Spain in 1516 and 1517.