overdraft

Etymology

It is formed from English over- + draft,^[2][3][4][5] after the verb overdraw.^[2][6] The OED compares the earlier overdraught.^[2] The verb overdraw is recorded from about 1400, first meaning "to draw something across", and in banking, to draw on an account for more than one's credit, from 1734.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A debt with a bank that arises when more is drawn from an account than it holds: 1812, in a letter of Thomas Jefferson.^[2][6] The revised OED antedates its own earlier record, which the 1989 edition gave as 1878;^[2][7] Etymonline finds the banking sense by 1841,^[3] and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dates the word to 1845.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the banking sense of overdraw, which is older by almost a century.^[3] Besides the act of overdrawing, it came to mean the sum overdrawn (by 1891 in Etymonline)^[3] and the limit up to which a bank lets a customer overdraw, a line of credit.^[6][9][10] From 1837 it was also used of drawing water from an aquifer faster than it is replenished.^[2] In the late 19th century it could mean an excessively large military draft of men, a sense recorded from 1886 to 1902.^[2] A separate technical use, a current of air made to pass over rather than through the burning fuel in a furnace or kiln, is found by 1884.^[3][9]

Timeline

• 1812 – a debt with a bank from drawing more than an account holds.^[2][6]
• 1837 – the drawing of water from an aquifer faster than it is replenished.^[2]
• 1884 – a current of air passing over the fuel in a furnace.^[3]
• 1886 – an excessive draft of men for military service (obsolete by 1902).^[2]
• 1891 – the amount by which a draft exceeds the sum it is drawn against.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of overdrawing a bank account, or the state of being overdrawn: An overdraft cost them a fee of thirty dollars.^[6][9][11]
2. The amount by which an account is overdrawn.^[11][9][6]
3. An arrangement with a bank to overdraw up to a set limit; a line of credit.^[6][9][10]
4. The pumping of groundwater from an aquifer faster than it is naturally replenished.^[2][6]
5. A draught of air made to pass over the burning fuel in a furnace; also a set of flues in a brick kiln that drive air down from the top.^[9][6]

Related words

• overdraw
• overdrawn
• draft
• draught

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary also spells the furnace sense overdraught.^[9] In banking the word is abbreviated OD or o/d.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ a b c Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins