Word Confusion: Loan versus Lone

Posted April 18, 2023 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

I, ahem, ran across a loan character trying to take out a lone.

I don’t think the author meant that she had borrowed a character from another story. I do know the character was not alone. Although, I suppose it’s possible that the “lone” was some type of beastie . . .

Now, if that character was a lone one, who needed a loan to get by, that I could understand.

It’s another heterograph (a subset of homophone) of which writers need to be aware. You don’t want your readers wondering what is happening.

You may also be interested in exploring the differences in “Borrow vs Lend vs Loan” and “Alone vs Lone vs Lonely vs Lonesome“.

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 “Loan versus Lone” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.

Return to top

Loan	Lone
Credit Data is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, courtesy of Data Innovation from an article “Congress Should Expand Use of Alternative Credit Data” by Gillian Diebold. — Credit cards are another type of loan.	Lone Goose on Road by MJ Boswell is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.
Part of Grammar:
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	Adjective
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)	Having no companions Solitary or single Lacking the support of others Isolated [Literary; of a place] Unfrequented and remote Only Lonesome [Literary] Lonely Unfrequented [Archaic] Unmarried or widowed [British; of a parent] Not having a partner to share the care of one’s child or children
Examples:
Noun: The bank gave him a loan. Henry got the loan of Philip’s bike. Accounting gave us the loan of one of their junior executives. Interest rates for loans are going up. He offered dinner if she’d loan him her copy of War and Peace. She’s the loan holder. Take Browning Loan to the hooked tree and turn left. Take the cows on up to the loan. Verb, intransitive: He gave me a loan for the gun. I usually have some twenty books on loan from the library. Jenny got it on loan. Verb, transitive: Will you loan me twenty bucks? She loaned her neighbor some money for groceries. Paula loaned Mike $1,000 for a car. I can loan you my driver drill. If I loan you the money, I expect you to pay me back with interest. My neighbor loaned me his camera. She knew Mary Ellen would never loan her the money, but she had to try. Jim loaned us his mountain cabin for the weekend. The garage loaned me a car while they fixed mine.	I hesitated to approach the lone reader on the park bench. There was a lone tree out in the field. I am not a lone voice in this discussion. Paul and Jane wanted to find a farmhouse in a lone rural setting. The story featured two siblings struggling to make a living on their lone ranch. I met a lone traveler at the train station and hit him up for conversation. We’ll be the lone company in this field. Helen stared in dismay at the lone path that wound through the woods. He was a lone widower, trying to raise three young children. Lone mothers generally struggle to raise their kids.
Derivatives:
Adjective: loanable, unloaning Noun: loanee, loaner, loaning, unloaned	Noun: loner
History of the Word:
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. The first known use was 1325–75. Middle English, Old English lone.	Late Middle English in a shortening of alone.

Return to top

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.

Return to top