Word of the Day

tranche \trahnch, trahnsh\,
noun:
1. any part, division, or installment: We've hired the first tranche of researchers.
2. Finance. a. one part or division of a larger unit, as of an asset pool or investment: The loan will be repaid in three tranches. b. a group of securities that share a certain characteristic and form part of a larger offering: The second tranche of the bond issue has a five-year maturity.
verb:
1. Finance. to divide into parts: tranched debt; A credit portfolio can be tranched into a variety of components that are then further subdivided.

All this committee was being asked to approve was to release a further tranche of funding…
-- Stephen Baxter, "Exultant," 2005

Seated on deck, where freezing conditions assured him of privacy, he sifted through a third tranche of newspapers and noticed a hardening of attitudes as well as an ebbing of interest.
-- Robert Goddard, "Into the Blue," 2006

Tranche unsurprisingly shares a root with trench. Both words come from the Old French trenchier meaning "to cut." While this term first entered English in the sixteenth century, it was 450 years before tranche took on its financial senses.


Dictionary.com Word of the Day