Lending

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The activity of supplying money or items to others, usually under the condition that they will be returned after an agreed period
2. The act of giving money or goods to someone with the expectation of repayment later
3. Supplying funds or possessions to another party for a limited time under a repayment agreement

Etymology: The verb "lend" descends from an Old English word, "lǣnan," meaning "to lend; give, grant, lease," which grew from the noun "laihnō," or "loan," in early Germanic. That noun and verb pair shows the idea of lending was once bound up with the idea of granting, something handed over without any expectation of return being spelled out. The same root gave Dutch "lenen," German "leihen" and Swedish "låna," so the word is shared across much of northern Europe. Its roots reach back to a Proto-Indo-European base, "leykʷ-," meaning "to leave, leave over." Lending, in other words, began as a matter of leaving something with someone. Latin "linquō" ("quit, leave") and Greek "leípō" ("leave, release") are distant relatives of the same stem, so a loan and a departure once shared a core sense. The "-ing" ending is simply the form that turns the verb into a participle and gerund, so the word's story is the story of "lend" itself. In its present shape the word has been in English since Old English times, long before any modern financial sense developed.

Synonyms: loaning, providing, offering

Antonyms: borrowing, withdrawing