usurer

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English usurer,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman usurer,^[4][5][6][7] a variant of Old French usureor, usurier,^[4][5][6] from Medieval Latin ūsūrārius (“moneylender, usurer”),^[4][5][8][9] from the Latin adjective ūsūrārius (“pertaining to interest, paying interest”),^[5][6][10] from ūsūra (“use, interest, usury”),^[5][6][10] from ūsus, from the stem of ūtor (“to use”).^[6] Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary call the moneylender word Late Latin rather than Medieval Latin.^[6][11] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English instead take the Anglo-Norman noun as formed from usure, from the same Latin noun.^[7][12] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1245, with the spellings userer and usurier among others.^[13] The OED compares Spanish usurero, Portuguese usurario and Italian usurajo.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who practises usury or lends money at interest: about 1290, in the life of St Magdalene in the South English Legendary.^[4] Barnhart gives about 1300,^[14] Etymonline the late 13th century,^[5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 14th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

At first a usurer was anyone who lent money at interest; later the word especially, and then only, meant a lender at a rate considered exorbitant.^[5][4] Johnson (1755) records both stages at once: one who puts money out at interest, but commonly one who takes exorbitant interest.^[15] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds a legal measure, a rate above that established by law,^[8] and Collins marks the plain sense "moneylender" as obsolete.^[16] A feminine usuress was formed in the 17th century, but it remained rare.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1245 – Anglo-Norman usurer, one who lends money at interest.^[13]
• c. 1290 – English usurer, a moneylender at interest.^[4]
• mid 17th century – usuress, a female usurer (rare).^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who lends money at an exorbitant rate of interest, or at a rate above the legal one.^[16][8][4]
2. (obsolete) Any moneylender.^[16][4]

Related words

• usurious
• usury
• use

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins