Etymologically
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finance

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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

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