"Imprest" and "Debenture."

Perhaps the following may be of some use to D.V.S. (Vol. ii., p. 40.) in his search for the verbal raw material out of which these words were manufactured. Their origin may, I think, be found in the Latin terms used in the ancient accounts of persons officially employed by the crown to express transactions somewhat similar to those for which they appear to be now used. Persons conversant with those records must frequently have met with cases where money advanced, paid on account, or as earnest, was described as "de prestito" or "in prestitis." Ducange gives "præstare" and its derivatives as me…