Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Finance in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels finance as noun. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913noun
Finance

[F., fr. LL. financia payment of money, money, fr. finare to pay a fine or subsidy (cf. OF. finer to finish, pay), fr. L. finis end. See Fine, n., Finish.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordfinance
Part of speechnoun
Historical etymology[F., fr. LL. financia payment of money, money, fr. finare to pay a fine or subsidy (cf. OF. finer to finish, pay), fr. L. finis end. See Fine, n., Finish.]
Selected historical definitionThe income of a ruler or of a state; revenue; public money; sometimes, the income of an individual; often used in the plural for funds; available money; resources.
Signed record IDwebster1913-finance-noun-a74115ad88a7
Source locatorCIDE.F, paragraph 3601; Gutenberg eBook 663
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 663Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "finance" is labeled noun. Its etymology is recorded as: "[F., fr. LL. financia payment of money, money, fr. finare to pay a fine or subsidy (cf. OF. finer to finish, pay), fr. L. finis end. See Fine, n., Finish.]" The selected historical definition says: "The income of a ruler or of a state; revenue; public money; sometimes, the income of an individual; often used in the plural for funds; available money; resources."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-10-04

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

More released F records

Every card owns a different source record and historical sense.

verb

Found

[F. fondre, L. fundere to found, pour.]

Webster 1913 exact recordnoun

Face

[F., from L. facies form, shape, face, perh. from facere to make (see Fact); or perh. orig. meaning appearance, and from a root meaning to shine, and akin to E. fancy. Cf. Facetious.]

Webster 1913 exact recordadjective

Future

[F. futur, L. futurus, used as fut. p. of esse to be, but from the same root as E. be. See Be, v. i.]

Webster 1913 exact recordnoun

Form

[OE. & F. forme, fr. L. forma; cf. Skr. dhariman. Cf. Firm.]

Webster 1913 exact recordadjective

Final

[F., fr. L. finalis, fr. finis boundary, limit, end. See Finish.]

Webster 1913 exact record

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