mortgage (English)
Where does "mortgage" come from?
The English noun 'mortgage' arrived by way of Middle English 'morgage' and Middle French 'mortgage', deriving from the Anglo-Norman compound 'morgage'[1][2]. This expression arose as a translation of the judicial Medieval Latin phrase 'mortuum wadium'[1], rendered in Old French as 'mort gage', literally 'dead pledge'[1][8]. The first element comes through Old French 'mort' from Latin 'mors' ('death'), tracing back to Proto-Indo-European '*mer-' ('to die')[4][5][6]. The second element, Old French 'gage', entered the Romance vocabulary from a Frankish term meaning 'wager' or 'pledge'[1][3][9]. It was named a 'dead pledge' because the profits generated from the land were kept entirely by the lender rather than counting toward reducing the principal debt[1].
Open questions
- The Frankish ancestor of the second element is reconstructed as '*wadi' or '*waddī' rather than attested directly. [1] [3] [9]
Full etymology tree
- mortgage (English), 'A legal agreement in which a borrower pledges real property as collateral for a loan used to purchase or refinance that property.'
- inherited morgage (Middle English), 'A mortgage (the conveyance of property as security for a loan or a loan involving this).'
- borrowed morgage (Anglo-Norman)
- inherited mort gage (Old French)
- calque mortuum wadium (Medieval Latin)
- compound mort (Old French), 'dead'
- inherited mors (Latin), 'death'
- inherited *mortis (Proto-Italic), 'death'
- inherited *mértis (Proto-Indo-European), 'death'
- affix *mer- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to die'
- suffix *-tis (Proto-Indo-European), 'Derives abstract/action nouns from verb roots.'
- inherited *mértis (Proto-Indo-European), 'death'
- inherited *mortis (Proto-Italic), 'death'
- inherited mors (Latin), 'death'
- compound gage (Old French), 'wage (regular remuneration)'
- borrowed *waddī (Frankish)
- inherited mort gage (Old French)
- borrowed morgage (Anglo-Norman)
- borrowed mortgage (Middle French)
- inherited morgage (Anglo-Norman)
- inherited mort gage (Old French)
- calque mortuum wadium (Medieval Latin)
- compound mort (Old French), 'dead'
- inherited mors (Latin), 'death'
- inherited *mortis (Proto-Italic), 'death'
- inherited *mértis (Proto-Indo-European), 'death'
- affix *mer- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to die'
- suffix *-tis (Proto-Indo-European), 'Derives abstract/action nouns from verb roots.'
- inherited *mértis (Proto-Indo-European), 'death'
- inherited *mortis (Proto-Italic), 'death'
- inherited mors (Latin), 'death'
- compound gage (Old French), 'wage (regular remuneration)'
- borrowed *waddī (Frankish)
- inherited mort gage (Old French)
- inherited morgage (Anglo-Norman)
- inherited morgage (Middle English), 'A mortgage (the conveyance of property as security for a loan or a loan involving this).'
Ancestors
- *mer- (Proto-Indo-European)
- morgage (Middle English)
Descendants and derived words
- anaconda mortgage (English)
- conventional mortgage loan (English)
- dragnet mortgage (English)
- endowment-linked mortgage (English)
- endowment mortgage (English)
- jumbo mortgage (English)
- liar's mortgage (English)
- mortgage-backed (English)
- mortgage-backed security (English)
- mortgage belt (English)
- mortgage bond (English)
- mortgage burner (English)
Sources
- mortgage (English) - Wiktionary
- morgage (Middle English) - Wiktionary
- gage (Old French) - Wiktionary
- mort (Old French) - Wiktionary
- mors (Latin) - Wiktionary
- mértis (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
- mortis (Proto-Italic) - Wiktionary
- morgage (Old French) - Wiktionary
- wadium (Latin) - Wiktionary
- wadi (Proto-West Germanic) - Wiktionary
Updated September 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris