A Note On European Economic Etymology

Here's the standard fallacious sourcing of the word "mortgage": 'Word History: The great jurist Sir Edward Coke, who lived from 1552 to 1634, has explained why the term mortgage comes from the Old French words mort, "dead," and gage, "pledge." It seemed to him that it had to do with the doubtfulness of whether or not the mortgagor will pay the debt. If the mortgagor does not, then the land pledged to the mortgagee as security for the debt "is taken from him for ever, and so dead to him upon condition, &c. And if he doth pay the money, then the pledge is dead as to the [mortgagee]." This etymology, as understood by 17th-century attorneys, of the Old French term morgage, which we adopted, may well be correct. The term has been in English much longer than the 17th century, being first recorded in Middle English with the form morgage and the figurative sense "pledge" in a work written before 1393.' --The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition go see th' mainstream model at- http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mortgage When we studied poli-econ (when such a robust field still existed in Amerikkkhan academia) a nice old-world guy made us think about this; pointing out that the Romans were quite adroit at both fiat currency and payment/deferment/interest schemae. Turns out the French word "mort" is descended from the Latin word those Romans declenched and derivated to describe and elucidate upon "death"; 'descended' being a way of saying the Franks straight-up ganked it, meaning and all. Likewise "gage"; meaning "pledge". Also, said this nice old economic history professor (who yes of course was Jewish; class was for Minor credit and mere Goychick science would not do) he said: "The last centuries of Rome were a true petri dish for global finance and international banking; and at this time the idea of Chartered Corporations begins to make itself known in new ways. Leveraging the future on someone else's credit becomes a golden goose for the plutocracy, who are already internationalist in Western Europe, and there are lots of wage-earners, who are more like indentured servants to Rome as a class; they are landless urban peasants and an emergant burgouesi class - The LandLord - needs a mechanism to option capital over time for control of Property. By Nero's time this had developed into banks, shell corporations, developer's mobs and time-shares, renters, leasers, sub-letters and underwriters; and mortgages." --Dr Primack [who didn't say it like that, probably] However, when the Romans called an agreement a "DeathPledge", it probably meant that your life was the marker, not that the note "died" when paid or defaulted. If defaulted, it becomes a zombie, actually; an undead mortgage can haunt one for quite some time. The Romans, i'm sure you'll agree, wouldn't be sending you through Chapter 11. They woulda consolidated all your debt into one nice, easy to serve decade at the Salt Mines. Or fuckanabalised your happy ass. Even i wouldn't wanna welch on the Bank of Rome. So why, oh why, this later-day obfuscation? BTW, favorite currant "chase" etymology: 1. (printing) A rectangular steel or iron frame into which pages or columns of type are locked for printing or plate making. Etymology 3 Possibly from obsolete French chas, groove, enclosure, from Old French, from Latin capsa, box. V., variant of enchase. Noun 1. A groove cut in an object; a slot: the chase for the quarrel on a crossbow. 2. A trench or channel for drainpipes or wiring. 3. The part of a gun in front of the trunnions. 4. The cavity of a mold. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chase