debt
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɛt/
rhymes: -ɛt
homophone: death (th-stopping)
Forms: form: debts
form: dette
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.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1589, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, act 1, scene 3:
text: This long debt of confidence, due from me to him, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid.
ref: 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 14, in The Scarlet Letter:
glosses: An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
examples: text: I am in your debt.
text: The petty ſtreames that paie a dailie det / To their ſalt ſoveraigne with their freſh fals haſt, / Adde to his flowe, but alter not his taſt.
ref: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC:
text: Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint / Forever in debt to your priceless advice
ref: 1993, Kurt Cobain, “Heart-Shaped Box”, in In Utero, performed by Nirvana:
glosses: The state or condition of owing something to another.
examples: text: Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers.
ref: 1919, Upton Sinclair, chapter 15, in Jimmie Higgins:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:
text: I don't own any stocks or bonds. All my money is tied up in debt.
ref: 2004, George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 213:
topics: business
finance
glosses: 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.
topics: law
glosses: An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due
Derived terms: acquisition debt
antidebt
bad debt
bonded debt
book debt
carbon debt
collateralized debt obligation
debt bondage
debt burden
debt ceiling
debt collection
debt collector
debted
debtee
debt enforcement
debt-equity ratio
debt exchange
debt-financed
debt-for-nature
debt-free
debtholder
debt instrument
debt-laden
debtless
debtlike
debt obligation
debt of honor
debt of honour
debt of nature
debt release
debt relief
debt-ridden
debt slave
debt slavery
debt trap
debt trap diplomacy
dequity
domestic debt
European debt crisis
external debt
foreign debt
government debt
in debt
in someone's debt
karmic debt
margin debt
megadebt
mezzanine debt
national debt
nondebt
nonfinancial debt
odious debt
oxygen debt
pay nature's debt
pay one's debt to society
pay the debt of nature
phantom debt
privileged debt
public debt
robo-debt
secured debt
sleep debt
sovereign debt
tech debt
technical debt
toxic debt
unsecured debt
zombie debt
Related terms: debit
debitor
debtor
indebted
owe