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What does “earmarked” mean in English?

When money is earmarked for something, it is kept separate and can only be used for one thing. You hear this word a lot in news about budgets, grants, and government spending. The word comes from a real farming practice: farmers used to cut a small mark into the ear of a sheep or cow to show it was theirs. That mark meant “this one is taken.” Today the word does the same job with money.

In the clip, the reporter says: “The extra 8 and a half million dollars was earmarked for political campaigns.” The money was claimed in advance — set aside for one use only. You will see this word in many places, not just politics. A charity earmarks donations for disaster relief. A school earmarks a room for students with extra needs. A company earmarks part of its budget for research. The pattern is always the same: something is reserved before it is spent or used. The farming origin is real. Farmers in Britain and North America have been marking livestock ears to show ownership since at least the 1500s, and farmers still use the word this way today. The jump to money and resources happened by the mid-1800s and is now the main meaning in modern English.