Debt vs Burden - What's the difference?
debt | burden | Related terms |
An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
* 1589 , (William Shakespeare), Henry IV, Part I , act 1, sc. 3,
* 1850 , (Nathaniel Hawthorne), (The Scarlet Letter) , ch. 14,
The state or condition of owing something to another.
Money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another, generally as a result of a loan or other financial transaction.
* 1919 , (Upton Sinclair), Jimmie Higgins , ch. 15,
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (legal) An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due.
A heavy load.
* 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
A responsibility, onus.
A cause of worry; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive.
* Jonathan Swift
The capacity of a vessel, or the weight of cargo that she will carry.
(mining) The tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin.
(metalworking) The proportion of ore and flux to fuel, in the charge of a blast furnace.
A fixed quantity of certain commodities.
(obsolete, rare) A birth.
To encumber with a burden (in any of the noun senses of the word ).
* Bible, 2 Corinthians viii. 13
* Shakespeare
To impose, as a load or burden; to lay or place as a burden (something heavy or objectionable).
* Coleridge
(music) A phrase or theme that recurs at the end of each verse in a folk song or ballad.
* 1610 , , act 1 scene 2
* 1846 ,
The drone of a bagpipe.
(obsolete) Theme, core idea.
Debt is a related term of burden.
As nouns the difference between debt and burden
is that debt is an action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another while burden is .debt
English
(wikipedia debt)Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)- Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt
- Of this proud king, who studies day and night
- To answer all the debt he owes to you
- Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
- This long debt of confidence, due from me to him, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid.
- Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers.
Engineers of a different kind, passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
- (Burrill)
Derived terms
* bad debt * debt exchange * debt-equity ratio * debt-laden * debt of honor * domestic debt * external debt * foreign debt * in debt * national debt * technical debtExternal links
* *burden
English
(wikipedia burden)Etymology 1
From (etyl) burden, birden, burthen, birthen, byrthen, from (etyl) byrden, .Alternative forms
* burthen (archaic)Noun
(en noun)- There were four or five men in the vault already, and I could hear more coming down the passage, and guessed from their heavy footsteps that they were carrying burdens .
- Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone, / To all my friends a burden grown.
- a ship of a hundred tons burden
- (Raymond)
- A burden of gad steel is 120 pounds.
- That bore thee at a burden two fair sons
Verb
(en verb)- to burden a nation with taxes
- I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened .
- My burdened heart would break.
- It is absurd to burden this act on Cromwell.
Derived terms
* burdensome * beast of burdenEtymology 2
From (etyl) bordon. See bourdon.Noun
(en noun)- [...] Foot it featly here and there; / And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.
- As commonly used, the refrain, or burden , not only is limited to lyric verse, but depends for its impression upon the force of monotone - both in sound and thought.
- (Ruddiman)