Where's the "r " in debit?

              The Accounting Historians Journal
Vol. 13, No. 2
Fall 1986
W. Richard Sherman RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
WHERE'S THE "R" IN DEBIT?
Abstract: The common abbreviation for the accounting term "debit" is a puzzling one—"Dr." Today, particularly with our depersonalized treatment of the account-ing or bookkeeping "debit," there is no obvious clue as to why there is an "r" in "debit" at all. An investigation of the history and evolution of the "debit" in book-keeping reveals the reason for the abbreviation—a reason almost totally lost with-out historical perspective. Whereas the accounting "debit" is now viewed as a "technical" term, devoid of any value considerations, referring simply to the left side of a journal entry or ledger account, this was not always the case. Originally, "debits" did have a "bad" side. They were used to record the debts of the mer-chant or businessman. Debits were debtors. And the abbreviation for "debtor" is "Dr."
As a liberal arts undergraduate, I spent part of the summer of my sophomore year enrolled in an introductory accounting course at the University of Pennsylvania's highly regarded Wharton School. At an accelerated pace, meeting three hours a day, four days a week, we flew through ledger accounts, journal entries, financial statement preparation — and accounting struck a chord in me. I found its symmetry satisfying. It appealed to my sense of order by its ability to organize and summarize diverse and seemingly chaotic transactions. Even journal entries made sense to me almost from the start. Debit Accounts Receivable, credit Sales Revenue; debit Cash, credit Accounts Receivable; debit Accounts Payable, credit Cash; and so on. I genuinely enjoyed this introduction to account-ing EXCEPT for one thing — Where's the "r" in debit?
One of the first obstacles in learning (or teaching, as I discovered later) the basics of accounting is the need to dispel the notion of "bad" debits or "good" credits. Students come to accounting having already acquired (or suffered) experience with bank state-ments and credit card receipts and other everyday exposure to the terms "debit" and "credit." Quite naturally, they assume that the same characteristics which debits and credits possess in those limited situations will apply in all accounting transactions — viz. credits are "good" because they add to one's account or worth