Collateral

How to spell collateral

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce collateral

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does collateral mean?

1. nounProperty or assets pledged to a lender as security for a loan.
2. adjectiveAdditional or secondary; running alongside the main thing.

Collateral in a sentence

• noun

  The bank required her house as collateral for the business loan.

• adjective

  The medication carried several collateral effects that the doctor explained.

• noun

  Without enough collateral, the small firm struggled to raise credit.

• adjective

  The airstrike caused significant collateral damage to nearby homes.

Where does collateral come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin collateralis, meaning 'side by side', which was built from com- ('together') and the noun latus ('side', the same root that gives us 'lateral' and 'bilateral'). In medieval Latin it described things running alongside one another, and English borrowed it through Old French in the late 1300s, first as an adjective meaning 'parallel' or 'situated to one side'. From the idea of something standing beside the main thing came the senses of 'secondary' or 'accompanying', as in collateral consequences. The financial meaning, property pledged 'alongside' a loan as security, grew out of the same image and became common from the eighteenth century. The double l and the unstressed -ter- in the middle are the classic spelling traps, both echoes of that buried Latin latus.

How the word is built

• col- (com-: together)
• later- (from Latin latus: side)
• -al (adjective/noun suffix)