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debt. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
debt, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
debt in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English dette, dett, borrowed from Old French dete (French dette), from Medieval Latin dēbita, from Latin dēbitum (“what is owed, a debt, a duty”), neuter of dēbitus, perfect passive participle of dēbeō (“I owe”), contraction of *dehibeō (“I have from”), from de (“from”) + habeō (“I have”). Doublet of debit.
The unpronounced "b" in the modern English spelling is a Latinisation from the Latin etymon dēbitum.
Pronunciation
Noun
debt (countable and uncountable, plural debts)
- An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
1589, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, act 1, scene 3:Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt / Of this proud king, who studies day and night / To answer all the debt he owes to you / Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
- The state or condition of owing something to another.
I am in your debt.
- (finance) Money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another, generally as a result of a loan or other financial transaction.
1919, Upton Sinclair, chapter 15, in Jimmie Higgins:Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers.
2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.
- (law) An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
state or condition of owing something to another
money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another
- Albanian: borxh (sq) m
- Arabic: دَيْن (ar) m (dayn), قَرْض m (qarḍ), قِرْض m (qirḍ)
- Armenian: պարտք (hy) (partkʻ)
- Azerbaijani: borc (az)
- Bashkir: бурыс (burıs)
- Basque: zor
- Belarusian: доўг m (doŭh)
- Bengali: ঋণ (bn) (rin), কর্জ (bn) (korjo)
- Bulgarian: дълг (bg) m (dǎlg)
- Burmese: မြီ (my) (mri), ကြွေး (my) (krwe:)
- Catalan: deute (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 借款 (zh) (jièkuǎn), 欠款 (zh) (qiànkuǎn), 債務/债务 (zh) (zhàiwù)
- Czech: dluh (cs) m
- Danish: gæld (da) c
- Dupaningan Agta: gahut
- Dutch: schulden (nl) pl
- Esperanto: ŝuldo
- Estonian: võlg
- Faroese: skuld f
- Finnish: velka (fi)
- French: dette (fr) f
- Galician: débeda (gl) f
- Georgian: ვალი (vali), თავანი (ka) (tavani)
- German: Schulden (de) f, Verbindlichkeit (de) f
- Greek: χρέος (el) n (chréos)
- Ancient Greek: χρέος n (khréos)
- Hebrew: חוֹב (he) m (khov)
- Hindi: क़र्ज़ m (qarz), ऋण (hi) m (ŕṇ)
- Hungarian: adósság (hu), tartozás (hu)
- Icelandic: skuld (is) f
- Indonesian: utang (id)
- Irish: dette f
- Italian: debito (it) m, buffo (it) m
- Japanese: 負債 (ja) (ふさい, fusai), 借金 (ja) (しゃっきん, shakkin)
- Kazakh: қарыз (qaryz)
- Khmer: បំណុល (km) (bɑmnol)
- Korean: 빚 (ko) (bit), 부채(負債) (ko) (buchae), 차금(借金) (chageum)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: قەرز (qerz)
- Northern Kurdish: qer (ku) m
- Kyrgyz: карыз (ky) (karız)
- Lao: ໜີ້ (lo) (nī)
- Latvian: parāds
- Lithuanian: skola (lt) f
- Macedonian: долг m (dolg)
- Malay: hutang (ms)
- Maltese: dejn m
- Maori: moni tārewa
- Mongolian:
- Cyrillic: зээл (mn) (zeel), өр (mn) (ör)
- Nepali: कर्जा (ne) (karjā), ऋण (ne) (r̥ṇ)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: gjeld m or f
- Nupe: gbàtà
- Old Church Slavonic:
- Cyrillic: длъгъ m (dlŭgŭ)
- Pashto: قرض (ps) m (qarz), دين (ps) m (dayn)
- Persian: بِدِهی (fa) (bedehi), قَرض (fa) (qarz), دِین (fa) (deyn)
- Polish: dług (pl) m inan
- Portuguese: dívida (pt) f, débito (pt) m
- Romanian: datorie (ro) f
- Russian: долг (ru) m (dolg), задо́лженность (ru) f (zadólžennostʹ)
- Sanskrit: ऋण (sa) n (ṛṇa)
- Scottish Gaelic: fiach m
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: ду̑г m
- Roman: dȗg (sh) m
- Shan: ၼီႈ (shn) (nīi)
- Slovak: dlh m
- Slovene: dôlg (sl) m
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian: dług m
- Spanish: deuda (es) f, pufo m (colloquial)
- Swedish: skuld (sv) c, gäld (sv) c
- Tagalog: utang (tl)
- Tajik: қарз (qarz), дайн (tg) (dayn)
- Tatar: бурыч (tt) (burıç)
- Telugu: అప్పు (te) (appu)
- Thai: หนี้ (th) (nîi)
- Turkish: borç (tr)
- Turkmen: bergi (tk)
- Ukrainian: борг (uk) m (borh)
- Urdu: قَرْض m (qarz)
- Uyghur: قەرز (qerz)
- Uzbek: qarz (uz), nasiya (uz), dayn (uz)
- Vietnamese: nợ (vi) (嫧)
- West Frisian: skuld c
- Yoruba: gbèsè
- Zazaki: vedeyn
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Translations to be checked
See also
References
- ^ Alexander M Burrill (1850–1851) “DEBT”, in A New Law Dictionary and Glossary: , volumes (please specify |part= or |volume=I or II), New York, N.Y.: John S. Voorhies, , →OCLC.
Further reading
- “debt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “debt”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Middle English
Noun
debt
- Alternative form of dette