When to use "spendieren" rather than "spenden"?

Question

Recently I came across the following sentence

"Wie viel RAM hast du denn deiner Kiste spendiert?"

Roughly I would translate this with "How much RAM did you dedicated to your box?".

What itches me more is that I cannot precisely tell the difference when using "spendieren" vs. "spenden". Both are listed as synonyms in Duden but I know they are not. When would we use the one or the other? Would the example above also work the same when using "spenden" ("Wie viel RAM hast Du denn deiner Kiste gespendet?")?

Answer 1

Etymologically, both words have the same root while spendieren is just an extension of spenden by adding the suffix -ieren to the root.

spendieren Vb. ‘großzügig (und reichlich) ausgeben, freihalten’ (17. Jh.), Weiterbildung zu spenden mit dem Verbalsuffix -ieren; vgl. mnd. spendēren, nl. spenderen. ^(DWDS)

However, both means (ver)schenken but they are differently used. Spenden connotes a bit more that you give something away to someone who is in need of that. You give money to poor people, or you give goods to people who aren't able to afford these stuff.

Ich spende jedes Jahr 100 Euro an Dritte-Welt-Länder.

Ich spende Kleidung für jene, die nicht das Geld dafür haben.

Spendieren, on the contrary, just means that you buy something for someone, e.g. an ice or a beer, just because you like to do them a favor.

Das Essen spendiere ich dir.

So, the main difference is that spenden is for a particular need while spendieren is just a favor.

You can translate spendieren with to get or to buy [sb.] sth. while spenden is translated with to donate or to contribute sth to so/sth (where sth is e.g. an organisation).

In your example, however, the use of spendieren is figuratively. Actually, you can't "make a gift to your computer". Nonetheless, the usage of spendieren is more accurately here than spenden, although it might be possible to use spenden if you want to express that your computer was really in need of the extension of memory. But I'd prefer spendieren over spenden in figurative use.

Anyway, I wouldn't use this expression. It sounds a bit strange to me. I'd say something along these lines:

Mit wie viel RAM hast du deine Kiste ausgestattet?

Wie viel RAM hast du in deiner Kiste installiert?

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Some recent examples:

Noch nie hat die Finanzbranche in den Vereinigten Staaten so viel Geld ausgegeben, um einen Wahlkampf zu beeinflussen. Banker, Hedgefonds-Manager und Vermögensverwalter spendeten bislang über 160 Millionen Dollar. ^(zeit.de)

Warum aber verzichtet Romney darauf, die ganzen 4,02 Millionen Dollar, die er für gemeinnützige Zwecke gespendet hat, steuermindernd geltend zu machen? ^(zeit.de)

Das erste Mal seiner Flamme (= Freundin, Anm. von mir) einen Amarena-Becher spendieren. ^(zeit.de)

Menschen laden ihn zum Essen ein und spendieren ihm Saft für seinen Roller, den Vianney liebevoll Gogo nennt. ^(zeit.de)

Answer 2

spenden

is mostly used in the sense of

to donate

So, you would say something like:

Last year I donated 200€ to charity.

Which is

Letztes Jahr habe ich 200€ für wohltätige Zwecke gespendet.

Whereas

spendieren

means something like

to spend on / to pop for / to treat sb. to sth.

So, to answer your last question: I would not use spenden in this context.