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usance

[yoo-zuh ns]
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noun
  1. Commerce. a length of time, exclusive of days of grace and varying in different places, allowed by custom or usage for the payment of foreign bills of exchange.
  2. Economics. the income of benefits of every kind derived from the ownership of wealth.
  3. Archaic.
    1. use.
    2. custom; habit.
  4. Obsolete. usury.
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Origin of usance

1350–1400; Middle English usaunce < Old French usance, probably < Medieval Latin ūsantia, derivative of Latin ūsant- (stem of ūsāns), present participle of ūsāre to use; see -ance
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for usance

Historical Examples

  • I'll lend no money gratis and bring down the rate of usance.

    A Forest Hearth: A Romance of Indiana in the Thirties

    Charles Major

  • But 'tis to much purpose to evade it; the common custom and usance of life will have it so.

  • He lends out money gratis, and brings down The rate of usance here with us in Venice.

  • The term "usance" is sometimes employed to express the period of running in foreign bills.

  • He knew that a debt to folly bears no grace, and was ready with his principal and usance.

British Dictionary definitions for usance

usance

noun
  1. commerce the period of time permitted by commercial usage for the redemption of foreign bills of exchange
  2. rare unearned income
  3. an obsolete word for usage, usury, use
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Word Origin

C14: from Old French, from Medieval Latin ūsantia, from ūsāre to use
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012