Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Pawnbroker |
PawnbrokerNoun1. A person who lends money at interest in exchange for personal property that is deposited as security. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "pawnbroker" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1791. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
19th Century Satire | A mercenary man to whom money is the one redeeming quality. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904. |
Finance | A dealer in pledges, licensed to carry on a moneylending business on the security of goods taken into pawn. Source: European Union. (references) |
| Keeps a pawnbroking establishment. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Literature | Pawnbroker The three golden balls. The Lombards were the first money-lenders in England, and those who borrowed money of them deposited some security or pawn. The Medici family, whose arms were three gilded pills, in allusion to their profession of medicine, were the richest merchants of Florence, and greatest money-lenders. (See Balls. ) Roscoe, in his Life of Lorenzo de Medici, gives a different solution. He says that Averardo de' Medici, a commander under Charlemagne, slew the giant Mugello, whose club he bore as a trophy. This club or mace had three iron balls, which the family adopted as their device. Pawn is the Latin pign[us] (a pawn or pledge). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Occupations | Estimates pawn or pledge value of articles, such as jewelry, cameras, and musical instruments, and lends money to customer: Examines article to determine condition and worth. Weighs gold or silver articles on coin scales or employs acid tests to determine carat content and purity to verify value of articles. Inspects diamonds and other gems for flaws and color, using loupe (magnifying glass). Assigns pledge value to article based on knowledge of values or listing of wholesale prices. Rejects articles in unsatisfactory condition or having no pledge value. Issues pledge tickets and keeps record of loans. Computes interest when pledges are redeemed or extended. Sells unredeemed pledged items. May examine customer's identification and record thumbprints for police reports. May testify in court proceedings involving stolen merchandise. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The job of a pawnbroker is to evaluate the value of any possessions that are offered as collateral for loans. The loan offered is a percentage of this value and the possessions are kept by the pawnbroker over the agreed period of the loan. If the money is repaid at any time during this period the customer gets the pawned items back. If the time elapses the pawnbroker gets to sell the possessions and as a result there are generally no small number of formerly pawned objects offered for sale at a pawnbrokers.
Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of pawnbrokers. A common pawnbroker's symbol is 3 balls suspended from a bar, representative of the three bags of gold associated with Nicholas's story.
There is an archaic language associated with the pawnbroker that today makes the famous pawnbroker nursery rhyme Pop goes the Weasel sound like a nonsense song to people who are not aware of its true meaning.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Pawnbroker."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Lending | Lender, pawnbroker, money lender; usurer, loan shark. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Pawnbroker |
| English words defined with "pawnbroker": Lombardeer ♦ My uncle ♦ Pawn broker, Pawn ticket, Pawnbroking, Pignerate. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "pawnbroker": Lombardeer. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You talk like a pawnbroker. (The Hollywood Revue of 1929; writing credit: Al Boasberg; Robert E. Hopkins) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Pawnbroker (1964) Pawnbroker (1990) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Illustrations showing portraits of two criminals, a pawnbroker shooting man inside his place of business, and crowd of spectators at a race in Madison Square Garden, New York City.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the manufacturer, so far, at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Pawnbroker" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.15% of the time. "Pawnbroker" is used about 52 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.15% | 50 | 48,117 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.85% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 52 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
the pawnbroker | 153 |
pawnbroker portland | 4 |
movie pawnbroker | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "pawnbroker"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | pronar dyqani pengjesh, pengmbajtës (mortgagee), fajdexhi (loan shark, moneylender, usurer). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مقرض المال, المسترهن, المراب. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | съдържател на заложна къща. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 典"商. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | zastavárník, majitel zastavárny. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | pantelaaner (pawnshop), pantelåner, assistenshus (pawnshop). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | pandjesbaas, pandhuis (pawnshop), lommerdhouder, bank van lening (pawnshop). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | مرتهن , گروگیر, وام ده (Scrivener), بنگاه رهنی . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | prêteur sur gages, prêteur, Mont-de-Piété (pawnbroker's, pawnshop), crédit municipal (pawnshop), caisse de crédit municipal (pawnshop). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Pfandleiher. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | ενεχυροδανειστήριο (pawnshop), ενεχυροδανειστήσ, ενεχυροδανειστής. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | משכו אי. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | zálogkölcsönzõ, zálogkölcsönző (broker). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | prestatore su pegno, mutuante su pegno, monte di piet (pawnshop), monte di credito su pegno (pawnshop). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 당포 주인. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | gioalteyr (acceptor, mortgagee), fer gioaltee. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | awnbrokerpay prestamista sob penhor, penhorista (pledget, uncle), comprometer (bind, compromise, Gage, implicate, pledge, plight). (various references) ростовщик (gombeenman, loan shark, lombard, moneylender, money-lender, note shaver, note-shaver, usurer), хозяин ломбарда. (various references) zalagaoničar. (various references) prestamista (creditor, moneylender). (various references) pantlånare (pawn-broker). (various references) tefeci (broker, cutthroat, discount broker, jew, loan shark, money lender, moneylender, shylock, usurer), rehinci (dolly-shop, pawnshop, pop-shop, uncle). (various references) лихвар, який да" гроші під заставу. (various references) chủ hiệu cầm đ". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "pawnbroker": pawnbrokers. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "pawnbroker" (pronounced 'Pawn"bro`ker'): Sharebroker, stockbroker. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-e-k-n-o-p-r-r-w" | |
-3 letters: browner, prawner, prewarn, prework. | |
-4 letters: awoken, banker, barker, barren, barrow, bewrap, borane, brawer, broken, broker, enwrap, knower, kroner, narrow, parker, pawner, pawnor, perron, porker, prewar, prober, prowar, prower, ranker, reborn, repark, rework, rewrap, warner, warper, warren, weapon, worker. | |
-5 letters: apron, arbor, arpen, arrow, awoke, baker, barer, baron, barre, beano, boner, borer, borne, bower, brake, brank, brawn, break, broke, brown, kebar, krona, krone, oaken, opera, owner, paeon, pareo, parer, pawer, pekan, poker, power, prank, prawn, probe, prone, raker, raper, rawer, rebar, rebop, repro, reran, rewan, rewon, roper, rowan, rowen, rower, waken, waker, woken, wreak. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-e-k-n-o-p-r-r-w" | |
+1 letter: pawnbrokers. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 61 77 6E 62 72 6F 6B 65 72 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. .- .--. -. -... .-. --- -.- . .-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010000 01100001 01110111 01101110 01100010 01110010 01101111 01101011 01100101 01110010 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)P a w n b r o k e r |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0050 0061 0077 006E 0062 0072 006F 006B 0065 0072 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)50678980688481777184 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Historic 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
