[NCjim]

OK - totally off topic - but why has the verb loan/loaned replaced the perfectly good English lend/lent? A loan was always a noun to me...

[aposiopetic]

I too was taught in school that “loan” was a noun and not a verb.

[nathanbedford]

Boy, I hope you get an answer. This has been bothering me for years but evidently not enough to look it up. Maybe I'll get it served up on a platter now by some learned and charitable FReeper.

[AUsome Joy]

I thought that was an interesting question so I looked it up.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/loan-lend-loaned-lent/

The word lent is the past tense of the verb to lend. For example:
• I lent you my bicycle last week. Why haven’t you given it back yet?
• When I lent you my book, you promised not to write in it.
• No-one lent a hand with my suitcase.
(If you’re used to British English, be careful not to confuse this with leant, the past tense of the verb to lean, which is pronounced in the same way. If you’re American, you’ll probably use “leaned”, but British English uses “leant” and this can cause a lot of confusion.)
The word loaned is the past tense of the verb to loan. For example:
• He loaned me a thousand pounds to start my business.
• If you had loaned me the money when I asked for it, I’d have succeeded.
• When I loaned him my tractor, I had no idea what he was going to do with it.

[Oztrich Boy]

OK - totally off topic - but why has the verb loan/loaned replaced the perfectly good English lend/lent?

"Loan" (lene in Middle English, læne in Old English) is the original.

"Lend" (Late Middle English lende) is the novelty.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

“A loan was always a noun to me...”

I totally agree. As in “Papa was a Rollin’ Stone” by the Temptations — “and when he died, all that he left us was a loan”.