finance

Etymology

From Middle English finaunce, from Anglo-Norman, Middle French finance, from finer (“to pay ransom”) (whence also English fine (“to pay a penalty”)), from fin (“end”), from Latin fīnis.^[1][2] Original English sense that appeared c. 1400 was “ending”. The sense of “ending or satisfying a debt” originated from French influence: in the sense of “ransom” appeared in the mid 15th century, in the sense of “taxation” appeared in the late 15th century. In the sense of “manage money” first recorded c. 1770.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaɪnæns/, /faɪˈnæns/, /fɪˈnæns/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fi‧nance
• Rhymes: -æns

Noun

finance (countable and uncountable, plural finances)

1. The management of money and other assets.
   • 4th century BCE, Aristotle, Politics, volume book I, part XI; republished as John Alexander Smith, William David Ross, transl., The works of Aristotle translated into English, volume 10, 1908:

     And statesmen as well ought to know these things; for a state is often as much in want of money and of such devices for obtaining it as a household, or even more so; hence some public men devote themselves entirely to finance.

   • 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:

     Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.

2. The science of management of money and other assets.
3. (usually in the plural) Monetary resources, especially those of a public entity or a company.

   Who's really in charge of a democracy's finances?

4. The provision of a loan, payment instalment terms, or similar arrangement, to enable a customer to purchase an item without paying the full amount straight away.

   Finance on all our new cars is provided by ABC Loans Ltd.

Verb

finance (third-person singular simple present finances, present participle financing, simple past and past participle financed)

1. (intransitive) To conduct, or procure money for, financial operations; manage finances.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To pay ransom.
3. (transitive) To manage financially; be financier for; provide or obtain funding for a transaction or undertaking.

   Synonym: fund

   His parents financed his college education.

   He financed his home purchase through a local credit union.

   • 1995, A. D. F. Price, Financing International Projects‎, page 3:

     Therefore, when assets are examined together with other problems, such as one-sided contracts or delays in payment, the argument for financing construction projects is substantially weakened.

   • 2000, G. Colombo, Sanctions and remedies in cases of illegal financing of political parties, Trading in Influence and the Illegal Financing of Political Parties, Third European Conference of Specialised Services in the Fight against Corruption, page 64,

     Indeed, it is a crime to finance or make contributions in any form to political parties, their factions, parliamentary groups, i.e. members of the Italian parliament (if they are Italian) and the European parliament, regional, provincial and town councillors, candidates in such offices, party leaders: […] .

   • 2011, Thomas W. Dombroski, How America Was Financed, page xi:

     This is not a historical novel yet it is in a sense historical and contained within this book is a true story of how America was financed.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To extort ransom from.

See also

• Appendix:Glossary of finance

References

• “finance”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• "finance" in the Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary (Beta Version), K Dictionaries limited, 2000-2006.

Further reading

• finance on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology

Borrowed from German Finanzen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈfɪnant͡sɛ]

Noun

finance f pl (relational adjective finanční)

1. finances

Further reading

• “finance”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “finance”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “finance”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [fiˈnant͡se]
• Rhymes: -ant͡se
• Hyphenation: fi‧nan‧ce

Adverb

finance

1. financially

Etymology

From Old French finer (“to pay”) + -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi.nɑ̃s/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

finance f (plural finances)

1. finance

Further reading

• “finance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.