asset

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈæs.et/^[1]

Etymology

It is a 19th-century singular made from assets,^[2][3][4] which is borrowed from Anglo-Norman assetz (“enough”), asetz,^[2][3][5] from Old French asez, assez “enough, sufficiently”, also a noun “sufficiency, compensation”,^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *ad satis “to sufficiency”,^[2][3][4] from Latin ad “to” and satis “enough”,^[2][3][6] from Proto-Indo-European *sa- (“to satisfy”).^[2] An asset is literally something of which there is enough.^[7] It is related to sad, satisfy and satiate.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

As assets, in law, sufficient estate to pay a dead person's debts and legacies: 1531 in the OED and Barnhart,^[8][3] the 1530s in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The English use began in the Anglo-French legal phrase aver assetz, “to have enough” to meet a claim, and later passed into general use.^[3][5] The word was at first singular, but because of its final s, copying the French pronunciation, and its collective sense, assets came to be treated as a plural,^[3] and the singular asset appeared in the 19th century.^[3][2] Any property available to pay debts, and then property in general, especially property that can be turned into money, is from 1583,^[8][2] and the figurative sense, a useful quality or advantage, from the 1670s.^[2][8] Asset stripping is from 1972,^[2] and asset management from 1974, originally American.^[8]

Timeline

• 1531 – assets, sufficient estate.^[8][3]
• 1583 – property available to pay debts.^[8]
• 1670s – figurative use.^[2]
• 19th century – the singular asset.^[2][3]
• 1972 – asset stripping.^[2]
• 1974 – asset management.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A useful or valuable quality, person or thing; an advantage.
2. A valuable item that is owned.
3. assets: all the property of a person or company, especially as listed on a balance sheet or available to pay debts.
4. A spy working in his or her own country under the control of a foreign power.

Word family

• assetless
• net asset value

Related words

• satisfy
• sad
• satiate

Usage notes

The plural assets is the older word; the singular was formed from it in the 19th century.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press