loan
pronunciation
How to pronounce loan in British English:
UK [ləʊn]
How to pronounce loan in American English:
US [loʊn]
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- Noun:
- the temporary provision of money (usually at interest)
- a word borrowed from another language; e.g. `blitz' is a German word borrowed into modern English
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- Verb:
- give temporarily; let have for a limited time
Word Origin
- loan
- loan: [13] Old English had a noun lǣn, a close relative of the verb lǣnan (precursor of modern English lend). It meant ‘gift’, but it died out before the Middle English period, and was replaced by the related Old Norse lán, which has become modern English loan. Both go back ultimately to prehistoric Indo-European *loiq-, *leiq-, *liq-, which also produced Greek leípein ‘leave’ (source of English ellipse) and Latin linquere ‘leave’ (source of English delinquent, relic, and relinquish).=> delinquent, lend, relic, relinquish
- loan (n.)
- mid-13c., from Old Norse lan, related to lja "to lend," from Proto-Germanic *laikhwniz (cognates: Old Frisian len "thing lent," Middle Dutch lene, Dutch leen "loan, fief," Old High German lehan, German Lehn "fief, feudal tenure"), originally "to let have, to leave (to someone)," from PIE *leikw- "to leave" (see relinquish). The Norse word also is cognate with Old English læn "gift," which did not survive into Middle English, but its derived verb lænan is the source of lend. As a verb, loan is attested from 1540s, perhaps earlier, and formerly was current, but has now been supplanted in England by lend, though it survives in American English. Loan word (1874) is a translation of German Lehnwort; loan-translation is attested 1933, from German Lehnübersetzung. Slang loan shark first attested 1900.
Example
- 1. Student loan debt hit a trillion dollars last year .
- 2. I haven 't offered my son a loan , though I am considering it .
- 3. But sometimes the problems we have seem like they can only be solved by taking another loan .
- 4. Through vittana , you can make a loan to a student to help him or her go to college .
- 5. Loan volumes have fallen for 14 consecutive months .