Do you know what the word “mortgage” really means?
It means Death Grip, dead Pledge! That’s probably a secret your mortgage broker didn’t tell you.
From Websters:
mort·gage Pronunciation: \?mo?r-gij\ Function: noun Etymology: Middle English morgage, from Anglo-French mortgage, from mort dead (from Latin mortuus) + gage gage
From American Heritage Dictionary:
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English morgage, from Old French : mort, dead (from Vulgar Latin *mortus, from Latin mortuus, past participle of mor, to die + gage, pledge (of Germanic origin).
Heres another interesting piece of trivia: originally, ownership rights extended from the center of the earth to the sky. Of course, now theyre generally limited to surface rights only.