# mortgage

Pronunciation: US say "MOR-gij" /ˈmɔɹ.ɡɪd͡ʒ/; UK say "MAW-gij" /ˈmɔː.ɡɪd͡ʒ/

## Noun

1. A secured loan, taken for a stated purpose, that lets the lender seize and sell the fixed property used as security if the borrower fails to repay.
   - Simple: A loan to buy a house or land, where the lender can take the property if you do not pay it back.
   - _The bank approved their mortgage after reviewing the couple's income and credit history._
   - _When the borrowers defaulted, the lender moved to foreclose on the mortgage and sell the house._

## Verb

2. To pledge a house or piece of land as security in order to obtain a loan, giving the lender the right to seize it.
   - Simple: To borrow money by promising a house or land to the lender, who can take it if you do not pay.
   - _The family mortgaged their home to cover the cost of medical treatment._
   - _Rather than sell the land, she chose to mortgage it and invest the proceeds._
3. To commit or put at risk something valuable, especially the future, in order to gain an immediate benefit.
   - Simple: To get something you want now by giving up or risking something important in the future.
   - _Critics warned that the deal would mortgage future generations to pay for today's spending._
   - _By taking on so much debt, the firm mortgaged its long-term stability for short-term gains._

## Noun

4. The condition of being pledged; the state in which property is held as security for a debt. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The state of being promised or held as a guarantee for a debt.

## Origin

This comes from Middle English "morgage" and Middle French "mortgage," from Anglo-Norman "morgage," ultimately from Old French "mort gage" ("dead pledge"). It translated the Medieval Latin legal term "mortuum wadium," with "wadium" from Frankish *wadi ("wager, pledge"). It was called a "dead pledge" because the lender kept the rents and profits from the land for as long as the pledge lasted, unlike a "living gage," where those profits reduced the debt over time.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/mortgage (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).