finance

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈfaɪ.næns/, /faɪˈnæns/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English finaunce, fynaunce,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French finance (“end; payment, expense; settlement of a debt”), 13th century,^[4][2] a noun of action from finer (“to end, settle a dispute or debt”),^[4][5] from fin “end”,^[4][6] from Latin fīnis (“end”),^[6][7] which in Medieval Latin also meant a payment in settlement, a fine or tax.^[4][2] The notion is of ending something that is due by satisfying it.^[4] Etymonline compares Greek telos “end”, plural “dues exacted by the state”.^[4][7] It is related to fine and finish.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

“An end, settlement, retribution”: about 1400 in Etymonline and Barnhart;^[4][2] the OED has “ending” from before 1400 and a settlement with a creditor, the payment of a debt, from about 1400.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The French senses came into English gradually: a ransom, from the mid-15th century, 1439 in the OED;^[4][8] a supply or stock of money from 1475;^[8] and taxation, the revenue of a state, from the late 15th century.^[4][8] The current senses date from the 18th century:^[9] finances, monetary resources, from 1730, after French,^[2] and “the management of money, the science of monetary business” from 1770, from a modern French sense.^[4][2] The verb first meant “to ransom”, in the late 15th century, now obsolete;^[4][10] “to manage money” is from 1827, and “to provide with money” from 1866.^[4][8][11] Financier is from 1618, in Francis Bacon,^[2] and financial from 1769, in Burke.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – a settlement.^[4][2]
• 1439 – a ransom.^[8]
• late 15th century – taxation; verb, to ransom.^[4]
• 1730 – finances.^[2]
• 1770 – the management of money.^[4][2]
• 1827 – verb, to manage money.^[4][8]
• 1866 – verb, to provide with money.^[4][8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The management of money, banking, investments and credit.
2. The science or study of managing money and other assets.
3. finances Money resources, especially those of a government, company or person.
4. The supplying of funds or capital.

Verb

1. To provide or raise the money for: finance a new road.
2. To supply funds or credit to.

Word family

• financeable
• prefinance
• financial
• nonfinancial
• refinance
• underfinance
• underfinanced
• unfinanced

Related words

• financier
• fine
• finish
• final
• finite

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster