Forms: α. 4 lennynge, lynynge, 4–5 lening, -yng(e. β. 5– lending, (5–6 -ynge, -inge, etc.). [f. LEND v.2 + -ING1.]
1. The action of LEND v.2; esp. the letting out of money at interest.
α. a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xxxvi. 27. [The rightwis] lennys, lerand and gifand almusdede till pore … and that is bot lennynge til god.
1340. Ayenb., 35. Þis is þe uerste manere of gauelynge þet is ine leninge kueadliche.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 277. Þat … borwyng & lynynge be frely don to pore men for goddis sake.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 204. Þe encres þat þou takyst for þe lenyng.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, III. iv. G iij. Hit is sayd in reproche whan I lene I am thy frende, and whan I axe I am thyn enemye; as who saith, god at the lenyng, and the deuyll atte rendryng.
1496. Dives & Paup. (W. de W.), VII. xxiv. 312. Yf wynnynge come frely to the lener for his lenynge without couenaunt.
β. c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 296/1. Lendynge, mut(u)acio.
1516. Galway Arch., in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 397. The lendinge or sellinge of anny the said vessells.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxii. 117. It is left to mens own inclinations to limit lending.
1785. Paley, Mor. Philos., III. I. x. (1786), 133. There exists no reason, in the law of nature, why a man should not be paid for the lending of his money.
2. concr. Something lent; a. gen. (fig. in plural).
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., IV. v. Thou lost a good wife, thou lost a trew friend, ha? Two of the rarest lendings of the heauens.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 113. Vnaccommodated man, is no more but such a poore, bare, forked Animall as thou art. Off, off you Lendings: Come, vnbutton heere.
1884. H. D. Traill, in Macm. Mag., Oct., 439/1. If we except the lendings of recognised slang, the total number of such additions … is itself not considerable.
† b. spec. pl., money advanced to soldiers when the regular pay cannot be given. Obs.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. i. 89. Mowbray hath receiu’d eight thousand Nobles, In name of lendings for your Highnesse Soldiers.
1599. Minsheu, Span. Dialog., 59/2. The other [ducate] was taken out for lendings. [Note, Succors or lendings which they giue souldiers when there is no paie, and when the paie comes they take it off.]
1611. Cotgr., Capesoulde, a Gentleman of a Companie; or one that hath extraordinarie Lendings; also extraordinarie Lendings, or entertainment.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., I. xviii. (1810), 193. The ready money which was payed to the Companie yearly for their Lendings.
1637. R. Monro, Exped., II. 131. To satisfie our hunger a little, we did get of by-past lendings three paid us in hand, and Bills of Exchange given us for one and twentie lendings more.
3. attrib., as lending-department; lending-house Hist., applied spec. to certain institutions for lending money without interest or at a low rate to the poor.
1797. W. Johnston, trans. Beckmann’s Invent., III. 21. Those who have as yet determined the origin of lending-houses … place it … from 1464 to 1471.
1890. Spectator, 14 June, 817/2. 34,000 [books] for the general lending department [for the Edinburgh Public Library].
1897. Tablet, 9 Oct., 567. It was Fra Barnaba who, in the 15th century … recommended the establishment of charitable lending-houses.
