finance

Forms

finance f^[1]

• finence, finanche^[2]
• finaunce, fynance^[3]

The Picard finanche is in Jean Bodel's poem quoted by Tobler–Lommatzsch.^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Old French finer (“to end; to pay”) + -ance.^[4][5][6][7] The verb is an altered form of finir (“to finish”), changed under the influence of fin (“end; money”), and meant first "to bring to an end", then "to pay".^[6][4][7] The FEW puts the noun under Latin fīniō (“to finish”), from fīnis (“end, boundary”),^[8][9] and Medieval Latin fīnō meant first "to bring to an end", then "to demand money" (1212) and "to give money" (1234).^[7][4]

Old Occitan finansa (“agreement; payment”), from finar, went through the same development.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in Robert Grosseteste's Château d'Amour, an Anglo-Norman poem of the first third of the 13th century, where sanz finance means "without bounds", of the greatness of God.^[1][10]

Semantic evolution

The noun first meant the end of something, in space or time, including the end of a life, and the settlement of a matter, as in the Clef d'amors, where a wrongdoer seeks a settlement for his offence.^[1][8] From the end of a debt it came to mean a payment and a ransom: in Adenet le Roi's Cléomadès it is a payment.^[4][1][6] In the 14th century it came to mean money, and in the plural, from 1314, the revenues of the State.^[4][6]

The sense "end" lived on in the 14th and 15th centuries, and in Boulonnais in the phrase ne fin ne finanche "without end".^[8] The modern word is French finance, whose sense of the handling of money affairs dates from the 17th century.^[6][4]

Timeline

• 1200–1233 – sanz finance "without bounds" in Robert Grosseteste's Château d'Amour.^[1][10]
• 1230–1253 – the AND's first citation.^[3]
• 1268 – the first date Greimas gives.^[11]
• c. 1280 – "settlement, pardon" in the Clef d'amors.^[1][12]
• c. 1280 – "payment" in Adenet le Roi's Cléomadès.^[4][13]
• 1283 – "payment, ransom" in Beaumanoir.^[6]
• 1314 – plural fineances "revenues of the State".^[4]
• 1377 – "money".^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. an end, ending; a limit; the end of life.^[1][3]
2. a settlement; pardon for an offence.^[1]
3. a payment, fee; a ransom.^[3][1][8]
4. an expense, outlay; a purchase.^[3][1]
5. money, funds; in the plural, the revenues of the State.^[4][1]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word finance, with the spellings finaunce and fynance, and first cites it from 1230–1253.^[3] It records the senses ending, fee or payment, ransom and expense, with a la finance "in the end, finally" and phrases for ransoming a prisoner or holding one to ransom.^[3] Middle English took it in the 15th century as finaunce, "ending, outcome", and about 1400 as "settlement, retribution"; it became the English noun finance.^[14][15]

Descendants

• Middle French finance (→ French finance)^[16][4]
• Middle English finaunce (borrowed; → English finance)^[14][15]

Related words

• finer
• fin
• finir

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy and the AND head the word finance;^[1][3] the DMF divides it into two articles.^[3] In the FROLEX counts the lemma finance is swollen by fiance "trust", which belongs to another word.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:1872
2. ^ a b FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. finance
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 456
6. ^ a b c d e f g Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 303
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. finance
8. ^ a b c d e Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3:558
9. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3:561
10. ^ a b Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. GrossetChastM
11. ^ Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. finance
12. ^ Stein, Achim; Kunstmann, Pierre; Gleßgen, Martin-D., eds., Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam, version 4 (lemmatised corpus of Old French texts, after A. Dees), Universität Stuttgart, github.com/michaniets/NCA (texts by DEAF siglum), p. ClefD
13. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. CleomH
14. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
15. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. finance