Despatches

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /dɪsˈpætʃəz/

Definitions

1. To send off letters or official documents for delivery
2. To communicate information quickly and efficiently through written messages
3. To carry out a task or mission with promptness and urgency

Etymology: "Despatches" is the third-person singular form of the verb "despatch," so it shares the history of that base word. "Despatch" itself is a variant spelling of "dispatch," and the two forms have long existed side by side in English. The verb is formed from the Italian "dispacciare," meaning to send off, which in turn came from the Latin "dispactare," a derivative of "dispandere" ("to spread out" or "to unfold"). This is the same ancestry as "dispatch," so the two spellings differ only in the preferred convention of the moment.