Other forms: financing, financed, finances
Finance is the management of money. Public finance, the finance department, work in finance.
The plural, somebody's finances, means their money situation: my finances are a mess. As a verb it means to provide the money for something: finance the purchase, financed by a loan. Finance is also the industry — a career in finance. Note financial, the adjective; financier, the person; and that in Britain the finance director and the chief financial officer are the same job under two names.
1nounfinanceThe management of money.
“She has worked in finance for about twenty years.”
2verbprovideTo provide the money for something.
“The whole extension was financed by one small loan.”
finance is the handling of money.
Old French finance comes from finer, to end or settle — from Latin finis, an end. To settle a debt was to finish it, and finance is named after the settling rather than the money.
Latin
fīnis
Middle French
finance
Middle English
finaunce
English, today
finance
Built from
From Middle English finaunce, fynaunce, from Anglo-Norman -, Middle French finance, from finer (“to pay ransom”) (whence also English fine (“to pay a penalty”)), from fin (“end”), from Latin fīnis. Original English sense that appeared c. 1400 was “ending”. The sense of “ending or satisfying a debt” originated from French influence: in the sense of “ransom” appeared in the mid 15th century, in the sense of “taxation” appeared in the late 15th century. In the sense of “manage money” first recorded c. 1770.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA