Disbursals

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of paying out money, especially from a fund or budget; the distribution of financial resources to designated recipients; the total amounts of money that have been disbursed or paid out in a specified context
2. The process of releasing funds, typically for specific expenses or obligations; allocating monetary resources for particular purposes or projects; the cumulative expenditures that reflect financial transactions in various settings
3. An operation involving the expenditure of money for particular uses, often related to organizational budgets; the act of allocating and managing financial resources; a record of total payments made for various services or needs

Etymology: "Disbursals" is simply the plural of "disbursal", a noun formed from the verb "disburse". The verb is built from "dis-", a prefix meaning apart or away, and the old French "bourse" (purse), which came from Latin "bursa" (bag or purse). To disburse is therefore to take money out of one's purse and pay it away, and each act of doing so is a disbursal. The suffix "-al" turns the verb into a noun for the act or process itself, so a disbursal is the action of paying out, while the plural "disbursals" counts separate payments or allocations. The word thus keeps its literal picture of emptying a purse, even in modern financial and budgeting contexts.

Synonyms: payments, expenditures, outlays