hypothecation

hypothecate +‎ -ion. From Latin hypothecatio, from hypotheco (“I pledge as collateral”), from Greek.

hypothecation (countable and uncountable, plural hypothecations)

1. The use of property, or an existing mortgage, as security for a loan, etc.
   • 1856, Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour, Letters to Squire Pedant, in the East, page 28:

     After the deperdition of Indagator, having an appetency still further to pervstigate the frithy occident; being still an agamist, and not wishing to be any longer a pedaneous viator, nor to be solivagant, I brought about the emption of a yaud, partly by numismatic mutuation, and partly by a hypothecation of my fusee and argental horologe.

2. (British) A tax levied for a specific expenditure.
   • 1984, John R. Butler, Michael S. B. Vaile, Health and Health Services: An Introduction to Health Care in Britain‎, →ISBN, page 68:

     It is, however, precisely here that the weakness of hypothecation lies, for governments are not likely readily to surrender control over the disposition of taxes they impose.

   • 2006, Dominic Maxwell, “Towards a citizen's inheritance”, in The Citizen's Stake‎, →ISBN, page 49:

     So, strict hypothecation is only advisable when the tax pays entirely and only for that spending programme […]

   • 2006, Julian Le Grand, Motivation, Agency, and Public Policy‎, →ISBN, page 155:

     Either way, effectively the government is simply using the hypothecated tax as part of general revenue, and the hypothecation is a sham.

• rehypothecation