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I am somewhat familiar with the word "amortize" which means gradually depreciating the value of an asset. I could have sworn there is also a word "amartize" which has to do more with proportioning.

For example, if I want to figure out the true cost of driving a mile in my car I need to take my total maintenance and insurance costs and then divide them by total miles. I thought I could describe this as "amartizing the insurance and maintenance costs," but Googling has me convinced that amartize with an 'a' is not a real word.

Am I just making this word up? If so, what is the correct way to phrase that proportioning? Can I use "amortize" that way?

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  • If you use the word "considering", the reader will deduce from the context that the maintenance and insurance costs are "approportionated".
    – Graffito
    Commented Dec 18, 2015 at 23:43
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    I agree that I've seen a word similar to "amortize" used to mean "apportion", as in "expenses amortized by mileage". It may be that those were just bogus uses, or there may have been a different word (that I can't recall just now).
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Dec 18, 2015 at 23:47

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The Oxford English Dictionary has never heard of amartize, and notwithstanding forty years in the accountancy profession I haven't either. I think you must have picked up amortize with a typo.

It would sort of fit with the example you quote, however personally I wouldn't use amortise right there. I would talk about averaging, or apportioning, the insurance and maintenance costs.

Amortise is normally used in book-keeping to write off (or write down) the value of a non-physical asset e.g goodwill, start-up costs etc. Physical assets are depreciated. (But it amounts to the same thing).

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"Amartize" is not a word in the English language.

"Amortize" can be used in the sense of "gradually depreciating the value of an asset" in the area of business accounting.

Here is an explanation from Wikipedia:

In accounting, amortization refers to expensing the acquisition cost minus the residual value of intangible assets (...) in a systematic manner over their estimated useful economic lives so as to reflect their consumption, expiry, obsolescence or other decline in value as a result of use or the passage of time.

Amartize is a fun word, but I'm afraid it's a figment of your imagination ;)

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Google suggests no:

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(Well, it's a proper noun as somebody's name, but apart from that.) Looks like the word you really need is amortize.

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