usance

American  

[yoo-zuhns] / ˈyu zəns /

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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usance British  

/ ˈjuːzəns /

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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Etymology

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

Example Sentences

The customer himself who buys cotton in Bombay, or wherever it may be, acts according to the custom there to draw a bill to a certain usance.

From Readings in Money and Banking Selected and Adapted by Phillips, Chester Arthur

It means a certain time fixed by custom as between any two places, and the period covered by a usance will therefore depend on the places of drawing and payment.

From The Gentleman's Model Letter-writer A Complete Guide to Correspondence on All Subjects, with Commercial Forms by Anonymous

The usance of wealth and the service of laborers at the moment rendered constitute forms of income.

From Modern Economic Problems Economics Volume II by Fetter, Frank Albert

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

From When Knighthood Was in Flower or, the Love Story of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor the King's Sister, and Happening in the Reign of His August Majesty King Henry the Eighth by Major, Charles

Usance between London and Hamburgh is two months, Venice is three months; and double usance, or two usance, is double that time.

From The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.) by Defoe, Daniel