Using "loan" vs. "lend"

Merrill Perlman of the Columbia Journalism Review tackles Wednesday the topic of when business reporters should use the word “loan” and when they should use the word “lend.”

Perlman writes, “Many style guides are pretty absolute, if not unified. The Associated Press Stylebook and The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage both want ‘loan’ only as a noun, with ‘lend’ as the verb. The Chicago Manual of Style is a little more subtle and permissive: ‘Lend is the correct term for letting someone use something with the understanding that it (or its equivalent) will be returned. The verb loan is standard only when money is the subject of the transaction.’

“The CMOS limit of the verb ‘loan’ to financial contexts implies but does not explicitly state that ‘lend’ should be used when the item changing hands is nonfinancial or figurative — be it a book, ears, or a tenor. Increasingly, though, people are using ‘loan’ as a verb regardless of what is being borrowed.

“According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, ‘loan’ as a verb fell out of favor in England after the seventeenth century. Because the provinces were still using it, the very proper British turned their noses up at it. Usage authorities well into the twentieth century continued to disdain the verb ‘loan’ as a lowly Americanism, even though some of the critics themselves were American. But ‘loan’ as a verb is now considered standard American English (although only when money is involved). Because ‘lend’ and ‘loan’ have become virtually interchangeable in practice, it’s only a matter of time before all uses of ‘loan’ are considered standard. The style guides are spitting into the wind.”

Read more here.