"serving to compensate," c. 1600, probably from or modeled on French compensatoire, from Latin compensatus, past participle of compensare (see compensate). Psychological sense is from 1921.
Entries linking to compensatory
compensate v.
1640s, "to be equivalent;" 1650s, "to counterbalance, make up for, give a substitute of equal value to," from Latin compensatus, past participle of compensare "to weigh one thing (against another)," thus, "to counterbalance," etymologically "to weigh together," from com "with, together" (see com-) + pensare, frequentative of pendere "to hang, cause to hang; weigh; pay" (from PIE root *(s)pen- "to draw, stretch, spin"). Meaning "to recompense, remunerate" is from 1814. The earlier verb in English was compense (late 14c.). Related: Compensated; compensating.