Word of the Day

: December 12, 2009

receipt

noun rih-SEET

What It Means

1 : recipe

2 : the act or process of receiving

3 : something received -- usually used in plural

4 : a writing acknowledging the receiving of goods or money

receipt in Context

If you find that the item has been damaged during shipping, please contact us upon receipt to request a return shipping label.

Did You Know?

These days it may seem odd to speak of "grandma's cookie receipt," but at one time the only meaning of "receipt" was "recipe." The first recorded use of "receipt" is a reference to a medicinal preparation in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c. 1386). "Recipe" didn't arrive until the 1500s, and it was also first used to describe medicine. Both words began to be applied to cooking only in the 18th century, after which "recipe" slowly became the preferred word. "Receipt" acquired its currently more familiar sense of "a written statement saying that money or goods have been received" in the 17th century. Both "receipt" and "recipe" are thought to be ultimately derived from Latin "recipere" ("to receive"), making them probable relatives as well as synonyms.