mortgage English · revision 22

+ ==Etymology==

+ From [[enm|morgage]],^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate) [[bor|fro|mort gage|t=dead pledge]] (13th century),^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) from ''mort'' “dead” (from [[la|mortuus]]) + ''gage'' “pledge”, of Germanic origin.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate) The ''-t-'' was restored in Modern English after Latin.^(Etymonline)

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+ Seventeenth-century lawyers explained the name, following Coke, as a pledge that becomes “dead” to one side or the other: to the borrower if he fails to pay, to the lender if he pays.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) Wiktionary gives another explanation: under a ''mort gage'' the profits of the land went to the lender without reducing the debt, as opposed to a “living” gage.^(Wiktionary) Compare [[gage]] and [[wage]].^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline)

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+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}