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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > STIPULATE

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pronounce STIPULATE:

STIP you late
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connect this word to others:

As we'll see in a moment, the word stipulate reveals a curious connection in ancient Rome between broken stalks of hay and serious financial agreements.

There's a similar connection between scales and payments, one that explains why the Latin pendere means both "to weigh or hang" and "to pay." Could you explain that connection?

And then, could you recall an English word from pendere that means "to give someone something that's (hopefully) just as valuable as what you took from them"? It's c__pen____.

How about another from pendere that means "deep in thought, as if weighing ideas"? That one's pens___.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)   

definition:

According to this historical account, in ancient Rome, when a seller would promise that their cattle is healthy, and a buyer would promise to pay for the cattle, they would each hold onto the end of a stalk of hay, then break it together in a ceremonial establishment of a bond between them. That explains why, in Latin, the word for "a stalk of hay," stipula, closely resembles the word for "to strike a bargain, or to exact a promise," stipulari.

So you can see why the English word "stipulate" originally meant "to make a contract orally." Over the centuries, "stipulate" took on a more specific meaning: "to point out a specific thing that must be part of a contract."

And that's how we use it today. When you stipulate something, you officially make it a required part of an agreement or a contract.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, the transitive kind: "The National Olympic Committee stipulates that athletes must be citizens of they nation they represent."

Other forms: 

The other verb forms are "stipulated" and "stipulating."

There's also a countable noun, "stipulation," as in "GoFundMe places stipulations on users who try to collect the money they've raised."

how to use it:

Pick the formal, common, businesslike word "stipulate" when you want to say that someone is specifying what must happen if they're going to accept a serious agreement with someone else.

Talk about people (or groups of people) stipulating that things must be done a certain way. You can also stipulate that if such-and-such happens, then something else must happen. 

Although it's often people who stipulate things, it can also be documents, agreements, laws, rules, handbooks and so on that stipulate things: "The job posting stipulated that candidates must have a bachelor's degree;" "A liquor license stipulates when, where, and to whom alcohol may be served;" "Standard book contracts stipulate that an author can't sell a different book to another publishing house until the original has been completed" (New York Times).

examples:

"To become a Sixer, you had to sign a contract stipulating, among other things, that if you found Halliday's egg, the prize would become the sole property of your employer."
 — Ernest Cline, Ready Player One, 2011

"The TV casting call [for the HBO series Harry Potter] stipulated that applicants must be residents of the UK or Ireland aged between nine and 11 by April 2025."
 — Louise Parry, BBC, 6 December 2024

has this page helped you understand "stipulate"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "stipulate" without saying "specify" or "spell out."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Some person or group) (can or can't) stipulate (how something gets done)."

Example 1: "Apparently our HOA can stipulate where we store our recycling bins. It's petty."

Example 2: "'This conclave cannot stipulate how I train my apprentices! It is my sole right to teach them, train them, and discipline them!'"
 — Neal Shusterman, Scythe, 2016




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "The LOL Is In the Details."

I'll give you a vague version of a quote from a funny writer or speaker, then prompt you to liven it up with detail. To see the original quote, scroll all the way down.

Here's an example:

"Don't order any of the faerie food… It tends to make humans a little crazy. One minute you’re snacking, the next minute you’re doing something insane."

Snacking on what? Doing what?

You might say, "One minute you’re sampling a mushroom tart, the next minute you’re doing the Macarena."

And the writer's original version was "One minute you're munching on a faerie plum, the next minute you're running naked down Madison Avenue with antlers on your head."
— Cassandra Clare, City of Bones, 2007

Try this one today:

"A century ago people would find a decent person who lived in their neighborhood. Their families would meet and, after they decided neither party seemed like a bad person, the couple would get married and have a kid, all by the time they were twenty-two."

What kind of bad person?

review this word:

1. A near opposite of STIPULATE is

A. LOSE.
B. STAVE.
C. FORBID.

2. While a mechanic taps his foot at me, I read the fine print before signing his paper. Who knows what kind of _____ are in there?

A. stipulants
B. stipulatives
C. stipulations




Answers to the review questions:
1. C
2. C

From the game:

Any unique version of the quote that you created is great! Here's the original:

"A century ago people would find a decent person who lived in their neighborhood. Their families would meet and, after they decided neither party seemed like a murderer, the couple would get married and have a kid, all by the time they were twenty-two."
—  Aziz Ansari, Modern Romance, 2015



a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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