Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Tontine |
TontineNoun1. A form of life insurance whereby on the death or default of a participant his share is distributed to the remaining members. 2. An annuity scheme wherein participants share certain benefits and on the death of any participant his benefits are redistributed among the remaining participants; can run for a fixed period of time or until the death of all but one participant. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "tontine" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1777. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Insurance | The contribution of a number of persons to a fund; at the end of a determined period this fund is divided up among the survivors in the form of payment of capital or an annuity. Source: European Union. (references) |
| Mutual, which divides its members into separate groups called "associations" and when the latters come to an end, share out the assets accumulated from the "subscriptions" paid between the surviving members of the associations or their respective beneficiaries, taking into account the age of the members and the period during which they have paid their "subscriptions" Source: European Union. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The tontine is named after Lorenzo de Tonti, the father of explorer Henri de Tonti who invented the scheme in France in 1653.
Each investor pays a sum into the tontine. The funds are invested and each investor receives dividends. When an investor dies his or her share is divided amongst all the other investors. This process continues until only one investor survives who receives all of the remaining funds.
The tontine was very popular in France, Britain, and the United States. The tontine was used to fund public buildings and other public works projects. Often these buildings or works contained the word "tontine" in their name.
Tontines have been banned in Britain and the United States due to the potential incentive for investors to kill one another in order to increase their shares in the scheme. But there are underground organizations in the US where people still use the tontine. Due to this the tontine has often been the plot device for mysteries and detective stories.
A tontine is the premise for The Wrong Box, a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, made into a movie by Bryan Forbes in 1966 starring Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine and Tony Hancock.
In data processing a Tontine is a secret-sharing algorithm which allows n people to share secret data, such that any k of them can reconstruct it by combining their keys.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Tontine."
Synonym: TontineSynonym: tontine insurance (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Receipt | Premium, bonus; sweepstakes, tontine. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Tontine |
| English words defined with "tontine": full tontine. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Plan & elevation of the Tontine Crescent now erecting in Boston / S. Hill, sc. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | The First block of residences in Boston was built in 1793 on Franklin Street. The Tontine Crescent, so-called from its shape, contained sixteen houses ... it was one of Charles Bulfinch's most ambitious enterprises. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Tontine Hotel, New Haven, Conn. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | The Tontine Coffee House, Wall & Water Streets, about 1797 / W.M. Aikman, sculpt ; Francis Guy, pinxt. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Tontine" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 66.67% of the time. "Tontine" is used about 6 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 (proper) | 66.67% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 33.33% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 6 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "tontine": free tontine ♦ full tontine ♦ tontine insurance. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; 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 |
tontine | 19 |
partner tontine | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "tontine"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | Lloj Sigurimi. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | Тонтина. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | Tontina. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | tontine. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | tontine. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | tontiinitoiminta. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | tontine. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Tontine, Leibrentengesellschaft. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | "ιανομή Επιδομάτων. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | Tontina. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | tontine, tontina. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | tonteen. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ontinetay tontina. (various references) Тонтина. (various references) tontina. (various references) tontina. (various references) tontin. (various references) Tontin, Anamal Aktarma Sözleşmesi. (various references) lối chơi họ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "tontine": tontines. (additional references) | |
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"Tontine" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: tauntine, Tinniney, tomtine, tondino, Toninia, toninte, Tonite, tonteen. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-i-n-n-o-t-t" | |
-1 letter: intent, intone. | |
-2 letters: niton, nonet, tenon, tonne. | |
-3 letters: into, neon, nett, nine, nite, none, note, tent, tine, tint, toit, tone, tote. | |
-4 letters: eon, inn, ion, net, nit, not, one, ten, tet, tie, tin, tit, toe, ton, tot. | |
-5 letters: en, et, in, it, ne, no, oe, on, ti, to. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-i-n-n-o-t-t" | |
+1 letter: intonate, nontitle, ointment, tinstone, tontines. | |
+2 letters: attention, bentonite, continent, dentition, detention, intention, intermont, intonated, intonates, mentation, negotiant, nilpotent, nonentity, nontheist, ointments, panettoni, retention, tinstones, tretinoin. | |
+3 letters: abstention, annotative, anointment, antilepton, attentions, beknotting, bentonites, bentonitic, catenation, consistent, contenting, contention, contesting, continents, contingent, continuate, denotation, dentitions, detentions, detonating, detonation, discontent, distention, extinction, intentions, interpoint, intolerant, knottiness, mentations, mignonette, negotiants, nonbetting, nontheists, obtainment, omnipotent, pentatonic, retentions, snottiness, sonnetting, stentorian, stoutening, tendonitis, tormenting, tretinoins. | |
| 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)54 6F 6E 74 69 6E 65 |
| 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)01010100 01101111 01101110 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)T o n t i n e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0054 006F 006E 0074 0069 006E 0065 |
| 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)54818086758071 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Anagrams 12. Orthography | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
