pawnbroker
a person who lends money
TRANSLATION
pawnbroker = der Pfandleiher --- GOOGLE INDEX pawnbroker: approximately 2,300,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Bus crashes into Coventry PAWNBROKERS shop
(BBC News headline)
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PAWNBROKERS sometimes specialize in or exclude certain types of assets. An upscale Atlanta firm called Chapes-JPL cites an expertise not just in diamonds, watches and jewellery but also in designer handbags and luggage. Expensive wine collections are another area of expertise, Murphy said.
(USA Today)
(BBC News headline)
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PAWNBROKERS sometimes specialize in or exclude certain types of assets. An upscale Atlanta firm called Chapes-JPL cites an expertise not just in diamonds, watches and jewellery but also in designer handbags and luggage. Expensive wine collections are another area of expertise, Murphy said.
(USA Today)
Did you
know?
pawnbroker
noun
- a person who lends money in exchange for things which they can sell if the person leaving them does not pay an agreed amount of money in an agreed time
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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Pawnbroker is a combination of the words "pawn," something left as security, and "broker," a trader. Pawn stems from the Old French pan/pant, meaning a pledge or security. It may further derive from a Frankish or Germanic source such as Pfand.
The Old French word is identical to pan as in a piece of cloth (from the Latin pannus, garment, piece of clothing). Some suggest this is the source of both the Old French and Germanic words and that it perhaps refers to the notion of cloth as a medium of exchange. Broker is from the Anglo-Norman "brocour", meaning a small trader.
The Oxford English Dictionary says the word pawnbroker first appeared in print in 1678. Before there was a word for it however, the pawnbroker was identified by three golden balls, a symbol that goes back to the Middle Ages. The first moneylenders in London were Italians, including members of the Medici family.
As the name implies, this was originally a family of medicine men who acquired their coat of arms after one of them slayed a giant who had attacked him with a weapon consisting of three gilded balls while fighting for Charlemagne. Thereafter they adopted the three balls as a coat of arms and later as a symbol for money lending.
(sources: Online Etymology Dictionary, Morris Dictionary of Words and Phrases)
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SYNONYMS
money lender, broker, loan shark, shylock, usurer
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation:
"During a recession, even rich people go to pawnbrokers for cash."
noun
- a person who lends money in exchange for things which they can sell if the person leaving them does not pay an agreed amount of money in an agreed time
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
Pawnbroker is a combination of the words "pawn," something left as security, and "broker," a trader. Pawn stems from the Old French pan/pant, meaning a pledge or security. It may further derive from a Frankish or Germanic source such as Pfand.
The Old French word is identical to pan as in a piece of cloth (from the Latin pannus, garment, piece of clothing). Some suggest this is the source of both the Old French and Germanic words and that it perhaps refers to the notion of cloth as a medium of exchange. Broker is from the Anglo-Norman "brocour", meaning a small trader.
The Oxford English Dictionary says the word pawnbroker first appeared in print in 1678. Before there was a word for it however, the pawnbroker was identified by three golden balls, a symbol that goes back to the Middle Ages. The first moneylenders in London were Italians, including members of the Medici family.
As the name implies, this was originally a family of medicine men who acquired their coat of arms after one of them slayed a giant who had attacked him with a weapon consisting of three gilded balls while fighting for Charlemagne. Thereafter they adopted the three balls as a coat of arms and later as a symbol for money lending.
(sources: Online Etymology Dictionary, Morris Dictionary of Words and Phrases)
---
SYNONYMS
money lender, broker, loan shark, shylock, usurer
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation:
"During a recession, even rich people go to pawnbrokers for cash."
