Etymograph

English

finance

Finance comes from Middle English finaunce, from Middle French finance, from finer ‘to pay ransom’, from fin ‘end’, from Latin fīnis.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfīnis1‘end’
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600fin1‘end’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600finer1‘to pay ransom’
  4. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600finance1
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500finaunce1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1995finance1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English finance
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1995, A. D. F. Price, Financing International Projects: “Therefore, when assets are examined together with other problems,…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfīnisWiktionary, English finance‘end’
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600finWiktionary, English finance‘end’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600finerWiktionary, English finance‘to pay ransom’
  4. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600financeWiktionary, English finance
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500finaunceWiktionary, English finance
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1995financeWiktionary, English finance. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1995, A. D. F. Price, Financing International Projects: “Therefore, when assets are examined together with other problems,…”

The story

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.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

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Today it means

noun The management of money and other assets.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “finance”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin fīnis / finance