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usance: msg#00028

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Subject: usance

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The Word of the Day for April 30 is:

usance \YOO-zuns\ noun
1 : firmly established and generally accepted practice or procedure :
usage
2 : use, employment
*3 : interest
4 : the time allowed by custom for payment of a bill of exchange in
foreign commerce

Example sentence:
"Make an investment of any spare monies as may render some usance." (Lord
Byron)

Did you know?
"Usance" was borrowed from Latin in the 14th century as a word meaning
"habit" or "custom." In the late 16th century, its worth was compounded when it
became a word for both the lending of money at interest and the interest
charged. Both meanings were known to Shakespeare when he was writing _The
Merchant of Venice_ (1596). "He lends out money gratis, and brings down [t]he
rate of usance here with us in Venice," says the usurer Shylock of the
protagonist Antonio. And, later in the play, Shylock tells how Antonio has
"rated ... about [his] moneys and [his] usances." Unexplainably, the currency
of these uses plummeted shortly after appearing in the play, only to be revived
in the 19th century.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.





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