1. [n]  a word borrowed from another language; e.g. `blitz' is a German word borrowed into modern English
2. [n]  the provision of money temporarily (usually at interest)
3. [v]  give temporarily; let have for a limited time

1. \Loan\, n. [See {Lawn}.]
   A loanin. [Scot.]
   

2. \Loan\, n. [OE. lone, lane, AS. l[=a]n, l[ae]n, fr. le['o]n
   to lend; akin to D. leen loan, fief, G. lehen fief, Icel.
   l[=a]n, G. leihen to lend, OHG. l[=i]han, Icel. lj[=i], Goth.
   leihwan, L. linquere to leave, Gr. ?, Skr. ric. ? Cf.
   {Delinquent}, {Eclipse}, {Eleven}, {Ellipse}, {Lend},
   {License}, {Relic}.]
   1. The act of lending; a lending; permission to use; as, the
      loan of a book, money, services.
   2. That which one lends or borrows, esp. a sum of money lent
      at interest; as, he repaid the loan.
   {Loan office}.
      (a) An office at which loans are negotiated, or at which
          the accounts of loans are kept, and the interest paid
          to the lender.
      (b) A pawnbroker's shop.
   

3. \Loan\, n. t. [imp. & p. p. {Loaned}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Loaning}.]
   To lend; -- sometimes with out. --Kent.
         By way of location or loaning them out.  --J. Langley
                                                  (1644).
   

The Mosaic law required that when an Israelite needed to borrow, what he asked was to be freely lent to him, and no interest was to be charged, although interest might be taken of a foreigner (Ex. 22:25; Deut. 23:19, 20; Lev. 25:35-38). At the end of seven years all debts were remitted. Of a foreigner the loan might, however, be exacted. At a later period of the Hebrew commonwealth, when commerce increased, the practice of exacting usury or interest on loans, and of suretiship in the commercial sense, grew up. Yet the exaction of it from a Hebrew was regarded as discreditable (Ps. 15:5; Prov. 6:1, 4; 11:15; 17:18; 20:16; 27:13; Jer. 15:10).

Limitations are prescribed by the law to the taking of a pledge from the borrower. The outer garment in which a man slept at night, if taken in pledge, was to be returned before sunset (Ex. 22:26, 27; Deut. 24:12, 13). A widow's garment (Deut. 24:17) and a millstone (6) could not be taken. A creditor could not enter the house to reclaim a pledge, but must remain outside till the borrower brought it (10, 11). The Hebrew debtor could not be retained in bondage longer than the seventh year, or at farthest the year of jubilee (Ex. 21:2; Lev. 25:39, 42), but foreign sojourners were to be "bondmen for ever" (Lev. 25:44-54).