Temporarily giving something to someone with the expectation that it will be returned, or providing money to be repaid with interest.
From Old Norse 'lán' meaning gift or loan. The practice of lending money is ancient, but formalized debt systems emerged with early banking in Renaissance Italy.
The world's oldest evidence of loaning is a 4,000-year-old Babylonian clay tablet recording a grain loan—proving that humans have been in debt since the invention of writing itself.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.