collateral

Meanings

Adjective

• Parallel, along the same vein, side by side.
• Corresponding; accompanying, concomitant.
• Being aside from the main subject, target, or goal.
• Of an indirect ancestral relationship, as opposed to lineal descendency.
• Relating to a collateral in the sense of an obligation or security.
• Expensive to the extent of being paid through a loan.
• Coming or directed along the side.
• Acting in an indirect way.
• Having the phloem and xylem adjacent.

Noun

• A security or guarantee (usually an asset) pledged for the repayment of a loan if one cannot procure enough funds to repay.
• A collateral (not linear) family member.
• A branch of a bodily part or system of organs.
• Printed materials or content of electronic media used to enhance sales of products (short form of collateral material).
• A thinner blood vessel providing an alternate route to blood flow in case the main vessel becomes occluded.
• A contemporary or rival.

Origin

• Recorded since c.1378, from Old French, from Medieval Latin collaterālis, from Latin col- (a form of con-) + the stem of latus.