mortgage

The story

1. Frankish · derived from*wadi“wager, pledge”
2. Medieval Latin · derived frommortuum wadium
3. Old French · derived frommort gage“dead pledge”
4. Anglo-Norman · derived frommorgage
5. Middle French · derived frommortgage
6. Middle English · inherited frommorgage
7. English todaymortgage

From Middle English morgage and Middle French mortgage, from Anglo-Norman morgage, from Old French mort gage (“dead pledge”), after a translation of judicial Medieval Latin mortuum wadium, with wadium from Frankish *wadi (“wager, pledge”). Compare gage and also wage. So called because rents and profits from the land were owed to the lender for as long as the gage existed (comparable to interest on a loan today), as opposed to the living gage, in which rents and profits automatically reduced the debt (paying it off over time).

Words from the same roots