Word Confusion: Borrow vs Lend vs Loan

Posted November 13, 2014 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
28 June 2023

Polonius: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be…
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”

– Shakespeare, Hamlet Act 1, scene 3, 75–77

I borrowed more trouble than I bargained for in exploring the word confusion that is borrow vs. lend vs. loan. So, lend me your ears as I expound upon this confusion and loan me a moment of your time.

When you borrow, you get the temporary use of money or a movable object from someone.

When you lend something to someone, you allow them the temporary use of a movable object, NOT money (in general).

When you loan something to someone, you allow them the temporary use of money.

And oh, brother. It just goes to show how flexible language is as words, their usage, their spellings, and more goes in and out of fashion, borrowing from other cultures while loaning words of its own to yet other cultures.

My father-in-law and I used to get into discussions about words, words that were common during Shakespeare’s day that Americans still use but that had been forgotten by the English. Words that sailed back and forth across the ocean, changing their spellings.

It’s a fascinating conundrum for those who adore words, and frustrating for writers, lol, for loving words as a single entity is not the same as loving to use words.

To Negate the Above . . .

Naturally, there’s a dispute about lend versus loan. A dispute that claims lend is preferred for the verb form while loan should only be used as a noun.

A number of dictionaries deny that this is an issue:

  • The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition: “[t]he verb loan is well established in American usage and cannot be considered incorrect” p 80.
  • Merriam-Webster: “…loan is entirely standard as a verb” p 81.
  • Random House: “Sometimes mistakenly identified as an Americanism, loan as a verb meaning to lend has been used in English for nearly 800 years”; it further states that objections to this use “are comparatively recent” p 82.
  • Chambers defines the verb loan as to lend (especially money) p 83.
Undisputed Usage Disputed Usage
I lent him some money. I loaned him some money.
Fill out the paperwork for a loan.

I’m including this dispute simply so you are aware of the issue.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

If you found this post on “Borrow vs Lend vs Loan” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.

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Borrow Lend Loan

Emma by Hugh Thomson (1860-1920) is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

I suspect the ladies will borrow at least one of those umbrellas!


The image is set on a plain white background with an oversized garden fork with a miniature scene resting on the tines, depicting volunteers harvesting and working in a field. In the background is a ploughed field with clear blue sky above in which two butterflies flutter.

Lend a Hand on the Land at a Farming Holiday Camp Art by Eileen Evans is in the public domain and was sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Chromoworks Ltd in London was the printer with Her Majesty’s Stationery Office as the publisher, via Wikimedia Commons.


A neon sign advertising pay day loans

Pay Day Loan Shop Window is Gregory F. Maxwell’s own work under the GFDL 1.2 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

Part of Grammar:
Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive

Plural for the noun: borrows
Gerund: borrowing

Third person present verb: borrows
Past tense or past participle: borrowed
Present participle: borrowing

Verb, intransitive & transitive

Third person present verb: lends
Past tense or past participle: lent
Present participle: lending

Noun 1, 2;
Verb 1, intransitive & transitive

Plural for the noun: loans
Gerund: loaning

Third person present verb: loans
Past tense or past participle: loaned
Present participle: loaning

You borrow FROM


Noun:
[Golf] A deviation of a ball from a straight path because of the slope of the ground

[Civil Engineering] Material dug from a borrow pit to provide fill at another

Living on borrowed time

  • Living an unexpected extension of life
  • Close to death

Verb, intransitive:
To take or obtain something from someone

[Nautical] To sail close to the wind

  • Luff

[Nautical] To sail close to the shore

[Golf] To putt on other than a direct line from the lie of the ball to the hole, to compensate for the incline or roll of the green

Verb, transitive:
To take or obtain with the promise to return the same or an equivalent

To use, appropriate, or introduce from another source or from a foreign source

[Arithmetic; in subtraction] To take from one denomination and add to the next lower

You lend objects TO


Verb, intransitive:
Allow a person or organization the use of a sum of money under an agreement to pay it back later, typically with interest

  • To make a loan

Verb, transitive:
To grant to someone the use of something on the understanding that it shall be returned

  • Allow a person or organization the use of a sum of money under an agreement to pay it back later, typically with interest

Contribute or add (something, especially a quality) to

[lend oneself to] Accommodate or adapt oneself to

[Of a thing; lend itself to] Be suitable for

You lend money (if a verb) TO


Noun:
The act of lending 1

  • A grant of the temporary use of something

Something lent or furnished on condition of being returned, especially a sum of money lent at interest

Short for loanword

The temporary duty of a person transferred to another job for a limited time

[Scottish; usually in place names] A lane or narrow path, especially one leading to open ground 2

  • Secondary road
  • A country lane
  • An uncultivated plot of farmland, usually used for milking cows

Verb, intransitive:
To make a loan or loans 1

  • Lend

Verb, transitive:
To make a loan of 1

To give money on condition that it is returned and that interest is paid for its temporary use

  • Lend

To lend (money) at interest

Borrow (a sum of money or item of property)

Examples:
Noun:
He made a left borrow.

One frequently sees abandoned borrow pits where material has been removed to build embankments or overpasses.

He’s living on borrowed time.

“The Brotherhood agreed, and I was expelled: living on borrowed time, I knew, because of the secrets I’d learned” (Pritchard).

Verb, intransitive:
Don’t borrow unless you intend to repay.

These gloves, another borrow from the Laser class, have an astonishing “grippiness” to them (Sail Nut).

[Nautical] To sail close to the wind

[Nautical] To sail close to the shore

The book borrows heavily from Nietzsche.

Verb, transitive:
Our neighbor borrowed my lawn mower.

I borrowed your good idea.

Could I borrow your car?

I borrowed this book from the library.

English is constantly borrowing words from other languages.

Borrow a 1 from the 3 and make it 4.

Verb, intransitive:
The bank lends only to its current customers.

“If you need stuff, skills, or spaces, there are communities waiting to lend, rent, or give” (Mac).

“They match people wanting money with others who have money to lend” (Farnham).

Verb, transitive:
George lent his support to Early Childhood Education.

The building should lend itself to inexpensive remodeling.

Distance lends enchantment to the view.

Hey, can you lend me a hand with this?

Stewart asked me to lend him my car.

We would lend the pictures to each museum in turn.

No one would lend him the money.

The smile lent his face a boyish charm.

John stiffly lent himself to her enthusiastic embraces.

Bay windows lend themselves to blinds.

Noun:
George gave me the loan of a book.

We got a loan for the house.

We can loan you Simmons from accounting.

Borrowers can take out a loan for $84,000 at ten percent interest.

She offered to buy him dinner in return for the loan of the car.

Who’s the loan holder?

Just follow down Whitehouse Loan. You can’t miss it.

Bring those cows in from the loan.

Verb, intransitive:
He gave me a loan for a car.

I have over fifteen books on loan from the library.

It’s on loan.

Verb, transitive:
Will you loan me your umbrella?

Paul loaned Jimmi the money to buy a guitar.

Jenny loaned George $50.

Will you loan me your screwdriver?

The bank can loan him the money at five-percent interest.

The word processor was loaned to us by the theater.

He knew Rob would not loan him money.

Mary Ellen loaned me her bike for the weekend.

Nearby villages loaned clothing and other supplies to the flood-ravaged town.

Derivatives:
Adjective: borrowable, nonborrowed
Noun: borrower, nonborrower
Verb: overborrow
Adjective: lendable
Noun: lender, lending
Verb: interlend, interlent, interlending, overlend, overlent, overlending, relend, relent, relending
Adjective: loanable, unloaning
Noun: loanee, loaner, loaning, unloaned
History of the Word:
The first known use was before 900.

Old English borgian meaning to borrow, lend, and derivative of and akin to the Dutch borg meaning a pledge also the Dutch borgen meaning to charge, give credit, the German Borg meaning credit, borgen meaning to take on credit.

Middle English borowen.

The first known use was before 900.

Middle English lenden, a variant — and originally the past tense — of lenen, Old English lǣnan (related to the Dutch lenen, the German lehnen, the Old Norse lāna), derivative of lǣn meaning loan.

It’s related to Lehnen, the Old Norse lān.

  1. The first known use was 1150–1200.

    The cognate of Old English lǣn meaning loan, grant, which relates to the Dutch leen meaning loan, the German Lehen meaning fief, which was replaced by the Old English lān from the Old Norse lān, which was then replaced by the Middle English lone, lane.

  2. The first known use was 1325–75.

    Middle English, Old English lone.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Borrow vs Lend vs Loan

Apple Dictionary.com

Cudoo. “Something Borrowed — English Words with Foreign Origins.” Languages & Culture. Cudoo. 15 Dec 2016. Web. 26 Oct 2022. <https://cudoo.com/blog/something-borrowed-english-words-with-foreign-origins/>.

Dictionary.com: borrow, lend, loan

Farnham, Alan. “New Ways to Get a Loan Without Going to the Bank.” ABC News. 5 Jan 2011. Web. 26 Oct 2022. <https://abcnews.go.com/Business/online-peer-peer-loans-benefit-borrowers-lenders/story?id=12547398>.

The Free Dictionary: borrow

“Lose the Cleat.” Sailnut.com. n.d. Web. n.d. <http://www.sailnut.com/sites/default/files/losethecleat.pdf>.

Mac, Amber. “5 of the Best and Worst Social Networking Trends for 2014.” Fast Company. 14 Jan 2014. Web. 26 Oct 2022. <https://www.fastcompany.com/3024607/5-of-the-best-and-worst-social-networking-trends-for-2014>.

Merriam-Webster: borrow

Pritchard, John. Night Sisters. HarperCollins, 1993. <https://amzn.to/3fcVXB5>. Print.

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Pinterest Photo Credits

Walking in the Rain is in the public domain, via PickPik.

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