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recompense

UK/ˈɹɛkəmˌpɛns/US/ˈɹɛkəmˌpɛns/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,369 of 15,258neutral

Recompense is payment made for trouble or loss. In recompense, receive recompense, offer recompense.

It is formal and it covers money and other amends alike — recompense for the inconvenience. It is close to compensation and slightly wider, since recompense can be a favour returned rather than a payment. Note that the Latin means to weigh back, from pensare, to weigh, which also gives pension and pensive.

Definitions of recompense

  1. 1nounrecompensePayment made for trouble or loss.C1

    “The airline offered free flights as recompense for the lost luggage.”

recompense is a payment.

Where it comes from

Old French recompense comes from Latin recompensare, to weigh back — re plus compensare. Compensate and pension come from the same weighing.

  1. Medieval Latin

    recompensa

  2. Old French

    recompense

  3. Middle English

    recompense

  4. English, today

    recompense

From Middle English recompense, borrowed from Old French recompense or Medieval Latin recompensa.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

recompense in the wild

  • Lugh set them a series of seemingly impossible quests as recompense.

    Éraic

  • The environs of Arlon were devastated and the duke, overcome, had to recompense the count of Luxembourg for the wrongs he had done him.

    Henry III of Limburg

  • Gamaliel, also spelled Gamliel, is a Hebrew name generally interpreted "God is my reward/recompense".

    Gamaliel (disambiguation)

  • The name Baalshillem means "recompense of Baal" in Phoenician.

    Baalshillem II

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.