rent

English has two common words spelled rent: the payment for property, from Old French rente, and “a tear”, from a variant of rend.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /rent/^[4]

rent¹ payment

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rente,^[1][3] borrowed from Old French rente (“payment due; profit, income”),^[5][1] and Medieval Latin renta, both from Vulgar Latin *rendita,^[5][1] the noun use of the feminine past participle of *rendere “to render, yield”,^[5][1][3] the source of render.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A source of income, revenue: 1137, in the Peterborough Chronicle,^[1] about 1154 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Its earlier general sense, income or revenue, is now obsolete.^[5][7] A tribute or tax is from about 1290,^[7] and the periodic payment by a tenant to a landlord from about 1330 in Barnhart,^[1] before 1300 in the OED.^[7] The verb meant to provide with revenue, endow, before 1376, in Piers Plowman;^[1][5] to let out for rent is from about 1447,^[1] and to take and hold in return for rent from the 1520s.^[5] Rent-free is from the 1630s.^[5] In political economy rent is what remains from the produce of the soil after the costs of producing it, by 1815.^[5][7] The prefix rent-a- is from 1921, at first of hiring vehicles.^[5]

Timeline

• 1137 – income, revenue.^[1]
• c. 1290 – a tribute or tax.^[7]
• c. 1330 – a tenant's payment.^[1]
• a. 1376 – verb, to endow.^[1]
• c. 1447 – to rent out.^[1]
• 1520s – to hire for rent.^[5]
• 1630s – rent-free.^[5]
• 1815 – in political economy.^[5]
• 1921 – rent-a-.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A regular payment made by a tenant to a landlord for the use of property.
2. A similar payment for the use of equipment or a service.
3. (economics) The income from land or other resources beyond the cost of producing it.

Verb

1. To pay for the use of (another's property).
2. To let others use (one's property) for payment.
3. To be available for renting: the flat rents for £900 a month.

Word family

• rental
• renter
• rent-free

rent² tear

Etymology

It is the noun use of Middle English renten “to tear”, from the early 14th century,^[5][1] a variant of renden, the source of rend,^[5][1][2] influenced by rent, the past tense and participle of rend.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A torn place, an opening made by tearing: 1535, in the Coverdale Bible.^[1][7][3]

Semantic evolution

A breach or split in a society or party, a schism, is from 1608.^[7] Of clefts or fissures in the earth it is from 1702.^[5] The adjective, torn, split, is from before 1420.^[1] In Scotland, Yorkshire, Lancashire and the west, rent remained a verb meaning to break, crack or tear.^[8]

Timeline

• a. 1420 – adjective, torn.^[1]
• 1535 – a tear.^[1][7]
• 1608 – a schism.^[7]
• 1702 – a fissure.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An opening made by tearing; a rip.
2. A split in relations; a breach.

Verb

1. Past tense and past participle of rend.

Related words

• render
• rend
• rendition

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)