It is likely that someone taught you that lend is a verb and loan a noun, never the two to be confused. “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” is Popeye’s friend Wimpy’s request for a loan; to give Wimpy money for a hamburger is to lend it. And yet, such is people’s obstinacy, you will hear them talk about loaning things, many things.
On investigation, we can find out that loan as a verb has quite the pedigree in English, with Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage pointing out that it has been current since the early 14th century. We’ve been loaning for 700 years.
Loan as a verb was common in Britain in the 18th century, and so it was in use by British Colonists who settled in America. The usage survived in what became the United States but faded in Britain.
In the 19th century, an American grammarian, Richard Grant White, noticed the difference and proclaimed that loan was a noun and should only be used as such. He based this edict, Merriam-Webster’s explains, on a mistaken etymology. But it got into the textbooks and usage manuals, and with the “monkey see, monkey do” pattern of textbook publishing, the prohibition has survived despite common usage.
In case you need backing, Merriam-Webster’s says that “although a surprising number of critics still voice objections, ‘loan’ is entirely standard as a verb.” The American Heritage Dictionary concurs: It “has seen vigorous use in American English and must be considered standard.”
The verbing of nouns and the nouning of verbs are common in English. Open a dictionary at random and you almost surely see definitions of a word in both noun and verb senses. If you have access to a historical dictionary, like the Oxford English Dictionary, you can see which sense arose first, but it doesn’t matter; both senses are there now.
But there is a point of distinction to be observed. Both lend and loan can offer someone the temporary use of something, but loan can refer only to money or physical objects. For figurative senses, as when Mark Antony says, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,” only lend will do.
The survival of loan as a verb in the U.S. and its disfavor in Britain is a reminder that in language usage, as in clothing and furniture, fashion – yes, I said fashion – plays a crucial role. Words are not Platonic ideals with a separate existence. We make them up, collectively, and decide what they mean, collectively. Then we alter what they mean, collectively, not by logic or design, but by the changing of our tastes and preferences.
John McIntyre was an editor for 34 years at The Baltimore Sun.