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The reporter seemingly couldnât make up his mind. In an article about a mayorâs financial problem, the reporter used a number of verbs to describe how the mayor had âborrowedâ money from the campaign:
The mayorâs âpersonal financial problems have raised questions about how he was able to lend his mayoral campaign $20,000 in April âŚâ
âState law allows candidates to loan their campaignâs money âŚâ
âOn April 12 he lent $20,000 of his own money to fill the still-lean coffers of his mayoral campaign âŚâ
âHe âloaned himself $10,500 in April 2006 âŚâ
The reporter was merely reflecting the overall confusion, or lack of understanding, over how to use âloanâ and all of its variants.
Many style guides are pretty absolute, if not unified. The Associated Press Stylebook and The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage both want âloanâ only as a noun, with âlendâ as the verb. The Chicago Manual of Style is a little more subtle and permissive: âLend is the correct term for letting someone use something with the understanding that it (or its equivalent) will be returned. The verb loan is standard only when money is the subject of the transaction.â
The CMOS limit of the verb âloanâ to financial contexts implies but does not explicitly state that âlendâ should be used when the item changing hands is nonfinancial or figurativeâbe it a book, ears, or a tenor. Increasingly, though, people are using âloanâ as a verb regardless of what is being borrowed.
According to Merriam-Websterâs Dictionary of English Usage, âloanâ as a verb fell out of favor in England after the seventeenth century. Because the provinces were still using it, the very proper British turned their noses up at it. Usage authorities well into the twentieth century continued to disdain the verb âloanâ as a lowly Americanism, even though some of the critics themselves were American. But âloanâ as a verb is now considered standard American English (although only when money is involved). Because âlendâ and âloanâ have become virtually interchangeable in practice, itâs only a matter of time before all uses of âloanâ are considered standard. The style guides are spitting into the wind.
Similarly, the New York Times, AP, and CMOS all agree that âlentâ is the only past participle allowed, even if âloanâ is permitted as a verb. So why do so many people use âloanedâ?
âLoanedâ is the way the past tense would be formed if âloanâ were a regular verb. But, as weâve seen, âloanâ isnât considered a verb at all by many, so its past participle is not only not regular, itâs nonexistent to some usage authorities and dictionaries. That despite usages of âloanedâ that The Oxford English Dictionary says go back to the sixteenth century. Itâs another wind-returned bit of spittle. (âLended,â which is showing up occasionally, is still just plain wrong.)
Unless your style guide absolutely so dictates, itâs perfectly OK to use âloanâ as a verb, though you might want to restrict its usage to money to avoid offending the sticklers. For the past tense, go ahead and use âloaned,â unless your usage guide forces you to give it up for âlent.â
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