Now chiefly U.S. Forms: (? 3–4 lane(n), 6 loane, 6, 8 lone, 6– loan. [f. LOAN sb.1
The earliest quots. are doubtful, as they may belong to LEND v.2 (a miswritten for æ); if correct, they indicate an early adoption of ON. lána of equivalent etymology.]
trans. To grant the loan of; to lend. Also with out.
c. 1200. Vices & Virtues (1888), 77. Gif ðu him lanst ani þing of ðinen.
c. 1205. Lay., 3680. Ich þe wulle lanen of mine leode-folc fif hundred schipes. Ibid., 6247. Ic eow wulle lanen [etc.].
1542–3. Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII., c. 2 § 1. Lonyng or leying out the same for gaines in purchasing landes.
c. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), I. 203. In yeares of dearth and Scarcity, [he] loaned to many of them … wheat and other corne out of his grayneries.
1644. J. Langley, Mournf. Note of Dove, 20. By way of location, or loaning them out.
1729. B. Fessenden, in N. Eng. Hist. & Gen. Reg. (1859), XIII. 32. Gershom Tobey loans Oxen.
1740. Connect. Col. Rec. (1874), VIII. 320. The remainder of the said thirty thousand pounds … shall be loaned out to particular persons.
1785. Weston Rec. (Massach.), 19 Sept. (1893), 370. Said sum being Loned to the Treasurer by the Direction of the Town.
1803. Fessenden, Terrible Tractorat., I. (ed. 2), 3. They will not loan me, gratis, Their jingling sing-song apparatus.
1834. Calhoun, Wks., II. 328. The power to withdraw the money from the deposit, and loan it to favorite State banks.
1847. Brownson, Wks., V. 541. We once loaned a Protestant lady a pamphlet by an eminent Catholic divine.
1880. Bonamy Price, in Fraser’s Mag., May, 674. He receives a deposit from one man; he loans it out in part … to another.
1896. Newnham-Davis, Three Men, etc., 172. The stalls … are barrack chairs loaned for the occasion.
absol. or intr. a. 1325. Prose Psalter, xxxvi[i]. 27. The ryȝtful ys merciful … and laneþ [MS. Dubl. leneþ].
1864. in Webster.
1901. N. Amer. Rev., Feb., 262. The limit … within which the executive officers … may loan to a director.
