To give someone something temporarily with the understanding they will return it later.
From Old English 'lǣnan,' related to 'loan.' The Germanic root relates to 'leave' (as in 'leave something behind temporarily'). This meaning has been stable for over a thousand years in English.
Lending is so fundamental to human society that economists argue civilization literally couldn't exist without it—the entire modern economy is built on lending money. Interestingly, cultures that formalized lending early (like ancient Mesopotamia) developed written systems partly to keep track of who owed what!
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