tontine en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /tɒnˈtiːn/ (UK)
- /ˈtɒntaɪn/
- /ˈtɒnˌtiːn/ (UK)
Etymology
From French tontine, named after Lorenzo de Tonti, who introduced the scheme into France in around 1653. Thus, from Tonti + -ine.
Meanings
-
A form of investment in which, on the death of an investor, his share is divided amongst the other investors.
There were many speculative schemes which gambled on the expectation of an individual's life, as in the tontine system, whereby all the group's contributions went to the last survivor.
1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 634:They were pleasantly high, but in an almost self-conscious way, as if they were members of a tontine blessed by the unexpected death of two or three of its members.
2000, JG Ballard, Super-Cannes, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 237:When Joseph Finsbury and his brother Masterman were little lads in white-frilled trousers, their father—a well-to-do merchant in Cheapside—caused them to join a small but rich tontine of seven-and-thirty lives.
1889, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lloyd Osbourne, chapter 1, in The Wrong Box:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| tontines | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
semitontine · tontinier · tontiner · tontineer
Relateds
Translations (4)
ca tontina (Translations) · fr tontine (Translations) · pl tontyna (Translations) · es tontina (Translations)