finance

pronunciation

How to pronounce finance in British English: UK [ˈfaɪnæns] word uk audio image

How to pronounce finance in American English: US [ˈfaɪnæns] word us audio image

Noun:

the commercial activity of providing funds and capital
the branch of economics that studies the management of money and other assets
the management of money and credit and banking and investments
Verb:

obtain or provide money for
sell or provide on credit

Word Origin

finance: finance: [14] Finance comes ultimately from Latin fīnis ‘end’, and its present-day monetary connotations derive from the notion of ‘finally settling a debt by payment’. Its immediate source is Old French finance, a derivative of the verb finer ‘end, settle’, which when it was originally acquired by English still meant literally ‘end’: ‘God, that all things did make of nought … puttest each creature to his finance’, Coventry Mystery Plays 1400. The debt-settling sense had already developed by that time, but this did not broaden out into the current ‘management of monetary resources’ until the 18th century.=> final, fine, finish

finance (n.): c. 1400, "an end, settlement, retribution," from Old French finance "end, ending; pardon, remission; payment, expense; settlement of a debt" (13c.), noun of action from finer "to end, settle a dispute or debt," from fin (see fine (n.)). Compare Medieval Latin finis "a payment in settlement, fine or tax." The notion is of "ending" (by satisfying) something that is due (compare Greek telos "end;" plural tele "services due, dues exacted by the state, financial means"). The French senses gradually were brought into English: "ransom" (mid-15c.), "taxation" (late 15c.); the sense of "management of money, science of monetary business" first recorded in English 1770.

finance (v.): late 15c., "to ransom" (obsolete), from finance (n.). Sense of "to manage money" is recorded from 1827; that of "to furnish with money" is from 1866. Related: Financed; financing.

vt.