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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