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DictionaryRoot: -atio
Latin

-atio

an action, process, or result

Forms

  • -atio
  • -ation- — Latin stem used outside the basic noun form.
  • -ation — Borrowed into English through French and Latin.

Origin

Latin -a-, associated with one class of verbs, plus the action-noun suffix -tio.

Note

The same formation can name either doing something or what the action produces.

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noun

dispensation

dis-pen-SAY-shun/ˌdɪspenˈseɪʃn/

Special permission to be exempt from a rule or obligation.

The exemption document records a dispensation from the usual requirement.

A formal permission document stamped EXEMPT rests beside a standard requirement checklist.
Etymology
disLatinapart, away; reversal or negation
+pensLatinhang; be suspended
+ationLatinan action, process, or result

The “weigh/pay out” image broadened into administering or managing. In church use, the word family also acquired the sense of granting permission to omit a requirement or depart from a rule.

In context

Allellu244:19
a marriage, which could not be altogether agreeable to him, since it required a dispensation, she being already the sister-in-law of Vysharpt, either the sister of his former wife, or the widow of a deceased brother.
Proofs of a Conspiracy [Part 1 of 2] by John Robison | Full Audiobook, Read-Along

More examples

  • The authority granted a special dispensation for the ceremony.
  • Without a dispensation, the rule still applied.
  • The committee considered his request for dispensation.

Forms

dispensation · dispensations

Similar words

exemption
Exemption frees someone from a requirement; dispensation often emphasizes special permission from an authority.
waiver
A waiver sets aside a right or requirement; a dispensation grants an exception for a particular case.