usury

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English usurie,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman usurie and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin ūsūria,^[3][4][5][6] an alteration of Latin ūsūra (“use, enjoyment, interest”),^[7][8][3] from ūsus (“use”), from ūtor (“to use”).^[9][3][10] The OED marks the Anglo-Norman form as reconstructed,^[9] but the Anglo-Norman Dictionary lists usurie among the spellings of usure, recorded from the early 12th century.^[11] Skeat and Weekley took the word from Old French usure.^[12][13] The Latin noun also gave usura and usura,^[2] and is related to use and usage.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The practice of lending money at interest: 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[9] Etymonline says about 1300,^[3] Dictionary.com 1275–1325,^[14] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 14th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Ayto sums up the word as, at root, the "use" of money lent.^[8] At first it meant lending at interest of any kind, and only later, especially, at excessive or illegal rates.^[9][3] The phrases at, to, on and upon usury are recorded from before 1400.^[9] From about 1450 it also meant the interest itself,^[9][3] a sense now archaic,^[9][10] as in the Authorized Version's "thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother".^[10] From 1549 it was used figuratively, often in the phrase with usury, for repaying something with more than was received.^[9][5] The sense "increase, advantage" lasted from 1576 to 1624, and the rare "use, employment" from 1607 to 1635.^[9] Johnson (1755) gave "money paid for the use of money" first and "the practice of taking interest" second, noting that the word was commonly used with some reproach.^[15]

Timeline

• 1303 – the practice of lending money at interest.^[9]
• before 1400 – at or upon usury.^[9]
• c. 1450 – interest on money lent.^[9][3]
• 1549 – figurative, with usury.^[9]
• 1576 – increase, advantage (obsolete by 1624).^[9][5]
• 1654 – verb, to give out favours in hope of a return (recorded only here).^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The lending of money at an exorbitant or unlawfully high rate of interest: The moneylender was charged with usury.^[16][10][9]
2. An exorbitant rate or amount of interest, especially one above the legal limit.^[16][10]
3. with usury: with something extra, more than was received: She returned the insult with usury.^[5][9]
4. (archaic) Interest on a loan of money or goods.^[10][9]
5. The lending of money at interest, whatever the rate.^[10][9] Collins marks this as obsolete.^[16]

Related words

• usurer
• usurious
• use
• usage
• usual

Usage notes

Weekley records, as a neologism, a separate usury adapted from French usure (“wear and tear, loss”), quoting a newspaper of 21 November 1917 on "the usury of enemy strength".^[13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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