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

Usance payable at Florence or Leghorn, is two months; but from thence payable at London, usance is three months.

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

When the steed recovered, bold Siegfried took on a frightful usance in the fray.

From The Nibelungenlied by Shumway, Daniel Bussier

In fact the law of debtor and creditor, and of borrowing money at usance, was well understood in Iceland, from the very first day that the Northmen set foot on its shores.

From The story of Burnt Njal From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga by Dasent, George Webbe

I have not wanted good words, and exceeding kind and regardful usance.

From Great Ralegh by Selincourt, Hugh de

Everything in it, tolerable or intolerable, will have but one use; and that use what our ancestors used to call usance or usury.

From Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)