Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An instance of lending.
  • noun A sum of money that is lent, usually with an interest fee.
  • noun The agreement or contract specifying the terms and conditions of the repayment of such a sum.
  • noun The repayment obligation associated with such an agreement.
  • noun The right to payment associated with such an agreement.
  • noun The state of being lent for temporary use.
  • transitive verb To lend (money or property).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To lend.
  • To lend money or other property; make a loan.
  • noun A lane.
  • noun An open space between fields of corn, left untilled as a passage for cattle; hence, a place near a village for milking cows. Also loaning.
  • noun A grant; gift; reward.
  • noun That which is lent; anything furnished on condition of the future return of it, or of the delivery of an equivalent in kind; especially, a sum of money lent at interest.
  • noun The act of lending or the condition of being lent; a lending: as, to arrange a loan.
  • noun [In civil law, when the loan was made of things which could be returned only by their material equivalent, it was called mutuum; when made of things which could be returned in the identical form, it was called commodatum.]
  • noun Permission to use; grant of the use: as, a loan of credit.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of lending; a lending; permission to use.
  • noun That which one lends or borrows, especially a sum of money lent at interest.
  • noun A pawnbroker's shop.
  • noun Scot. A loanin.
  • transitive verb To lend; -- sometimes with out.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun banking, finance A sum of money or other valuables or consideration that an individual, group or other legal entity borrows from another individual, group or legal entity (the latter often being a financial institution) with the condition that it be returned or repaid at a later date (sometimes with interest).
  • noun The contract and array of legal or ethical obligations surrounding a loan.
  • noun The permission to borrow any item.
  • verb US, informal To lend (something) to (someone).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a word borrowed from another language; e.g. `blitz' is a German word borrowed into modern English
  • verb give temporarily; let have for a limited time
  • noun the temporary provision of money (usually at interest)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English lan, lon, from Old Norse lān; see leikw- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lone, lane, from Old Norse lán ("loan"), from Proto-Germanic *laihnan (“that which is lent, loan, fief”), from Proto-Indo-European *leykʷ- (“to leave, leave over”). Cognate with Icelandic lán ("loan"), Swedish lån ("loan"), Danish lån ("loan"), German Lehen ("fief, feudal estate"), Dutch leen ("fief, feudatory, something lent"), West Frisian lien ("something borrowed, loan"), North Frisian leen ("fief, loan, office"), Scots lane, lain, len ("loan"), Old English lǣn ("loan, borrowing, lease, grant, gift, present, benefit"). More at lend.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Prestar, préstamo // loan ≈ lend; loan ≠ borrow // WordReference

    October 19, 2007

  • /ləʊn/

    October 19, 2007

  • Italians vote for ugliest English loan words: the Dante Alighieri Society list

    http://snurl.com/3q4cg

    September 14, 2008

  • Funny - and so true, Elisheba!

    September 14, 2008

  • still, if you ban weekend and ok, you may as well ban ALL loans from the italian language (!)

    they've been with us for decades now, and are no longer perceived as foreign. so, while i agree that too many english imports - i mean words imported 'as they are', not calques - threaten to 'stunt' the growth of the italian language (but then look at german and the other german languages, the situation is even worse), i think being too strict is outmoded and unrealistic: linguistic trends are uncontrollable, a bit like viral epidemics, there's no use trying to fence them in...

    September 14, 2008

  • I agree with you. Some foreign words are well integrated in Italian culture.

    What I really, really hate is people using some English words just to look more professional (even this word is used in Italian!).

    The funniest one is the French word stage (internship) pronounced as in English, where it has a complete different meaning! Faccio uno steig a Milano...

    September 14, 2008

  • lo 'steig', ahahah :-)) agreed prolagus! i fear this will soon become the standard pronunciation... whether we like it or not, ignorance and mistakes in general are one of the main propulsive forces behind linguistic evolution...

    September 14, 2008