DISPATCH, or DESPATCH  , to send off immediately, or by express; particularly in the case of the sending of official messages, or of the immediate sending of troops to their destination, or the like . The word is thus used as a substantive of written official reports of events, battles and the like, sent by ambassadors, generals, &c., by means of a special messenger, or of express correspondence generally . From the primary meaning of the prompt sending of a message, &c., the word is used of the quick disposal of business, or of the disposal of a person by violence; hence the word means to execute or murder . The etymology of the word has been obscured by the connexion with the Fr. depe"cher, and depe&he, which are in meaning the equivalents of ' The etymology of this word has been confused by the early adoption into English usage of the O . Fr. bordel . The two words are in origin quite distinct . Brothel is an O . Eng. word for a person, not a place . It meant an abandoned vagabond, one who had gone to ruin (abreothan) . Bordel, on the contrary, is a place, literally a small hut or shelter, especially for fornication, Med . Lat. bordellum, diminutive of the Late Lat. borda, board . The words were early confused; and brothel-house, bordel-house, bordel or brothel, are all used for a disorderly house, while bordel was similarly misused, and, like brothel in its proper meaning, was applied to a disorderly person.the Eng. verb and substantive .

The Fr. word is made up of the prefix de-, Lat. dis-, and the

root which appears in emp&her, to embarrass, and means literally to disentangle . The Lat. origin of dep&her and empecher is a Low Lat. pedicare, pedica, a fetter . The Fr. word came into Eng. as depeach, which was in use from the 15th century until" despatch " was introduced . This word is certainly direct from the Ital. dispacciare, or Span. despachar, which must be derived from the Lat. root appearing in pactus, fixed, fastened, from pangere . The New English Dictionary finds the earliest instance of " dispatch " in a letter to Henry VIII. from Bishop Tunstall, commissioner to Spain in 1516–r 517 .