Linterès

L'interès is a Catalan noun with two primary senses. In one sense it denotes interest as curiosity or concern: the attention or importance someone gives to a topic; for example, “L'interès dels estudiants per la ciència és evident.” In a financial sense, l'interès designates the price of borrowing or lending money, i.e., the interest rate or the share of profits involved in a loan or investment: “El tipus d'interès és del 3,5%.”

Origin and form: The term derives from Latin interesse, via Old French intérést, and arrived in Catalan as interès. When used with a definite article before a vowel, the form contracts to l'interès. The noun is masculine; the plural form is interessos, and the definite plural is els interessos.

Usage notes: Common collocations include l'interès públic (the public interest) and tipus d'interès (types of interest), interès real (real interest), i interès nominal (nominal interest). The sense is distinguished by context rather than by separate words. The related verb interessar means “to interest” or “to concern.”

See also: In Catalan, l'interès shares etymological roots with interest concepts in other Romance languages, and it is contrasted with related terms such as preocupació (preoccupation) when referring to concern, or tipus d'interès when discussing financial rates.