Other forms: granted, grants, granting
A grant is money given for a purpose and not repaid — for study, research, a business or a repair. Apply for a grant, a research grant, the grant runs out in June.
The distinction from a loan is the whole point: a grant is not paid back. As a verb, to grant is to give somebody something formally: grant permission, grant a licence, grant an interview. And to grant a point in an argument is to concede it, which gives the very common phrase I grant you and the connector granted, meaning admittedly. Note take something for granted, meaning to assume it without noticing.
1noungrantMoney given for a purpose and not repaid.
“The grant covers equipment but not salaries.”
synonyms: funding, award, subsidy
2verbgiveTo give or allow something formally.
“Permission was granted in under a week.”
3verbadmitTo admit that a point is true.
“I grant you it is not an easy question.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
grant is something given formally.
Also accepted in games: funding
Old French granter came from Latin credere, to believe or trust, by way of a Vulgar Latin form. Granting was originally trusting somebody with something, and the sense of formally giving came from the language of charters.
Latin
credere — to believe, trust
Medieval Latin
*credentāre
Old French
granter
Anglo-Norman
granter
Middle English
granten
English, today
grant
Built from
From Middle English granten, graunten, grantien, grauntien, from Anglo-Norman granter, graunter, from Old French granter, graunter, graanter, greanter (“to promise, assure, guarantee, confirm, ratify”), from a merger of Old French garantir, guarantir (“to guarantee, assure, vouch for”) (see English guarantee) and earlier cranter, craanter, creanter (“to allow, permit”), from an assumed Medieval Latin credentāre, from Latin credere (“to believe, trust”). Alternatively, a regular reflex of Medieval Latin credentāre with regular voicing of /k/ before a liquid plus low vowel. More at guarantee, credit.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA