finance: [14] Finance comes ultimately from Latin fīnis ‘end’, and its present-day monetary connotations derive from the notion of ‘finally settling a debt by payment’. Its immediate source is Old French finance, a derivative of the verb finer ‘end, settle’, which when it was originally acquired by English still meant literally ‘end’: ‘God, that all things did make of nought … puttest each creature to his finance’, Coventry Mystery Plays 1400. The debt-settling sense had already developed by that time, but this did not broaden out into the current ‘management of monetary resources’ until the 18th century. => final, fine, finish
finance (n.)
c. 1400, "an end, settlement, retribution," from Old French finance "end, ending; pardon, remission; payment, expense; settlement of a debt" (13c.), noun of action from finer "to end, settle a dispute or debt," from fin (see fine (n.)). Compare Medieval Latin finis "a payment in settlement, fine or tax."
The notion is of "ending" (by satisfying) something that is due (compare Greek telos "end;" plural tele "services due, dues exacted by the state, financial means"). The French senses gradually were brought into English: "ransom" (mid-15c.), "taxation" (late 15c.); the sense of "management of money, science of monetary business" first recorded in English 1770.
finance (v.)
late 15c., "to ransom" (obsolete), from finance (n.). Sense of "to manage money" is recorded from 1827; that of "to furnish with money" is from 1866. Related: Financed; financing.
双语例句
1. The finance minister will continue to mastermind Poland's economic reform.
财政部长将继续策划波兰的经济改革。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The scheme offers seed corn finance with loans at only 4% interest.
该方案提供种子基金融资，其贷款只收取4%的利息。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Foreign Office officials assisted with transport and finance problems.
外交部官员帮助解决运输和经费问题。
来自柯林斯例句
4. He majored in finance at Claremont Men's College in California.
他在加利福尼亚州的克莱尔蒙特男子学院主修金融专业。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The United States was tops in finance and services.