1590s, "act of putting on vestments" (a sense now found in investiture); later "act of being invested with an office, right, endowment, etc." (1640s); and "surrounding and besieging" of a military target (1811); from invest + -ment.

Commercial sense of "an investing of money or capital" is from 1610s, originally in reference to the East India Company; general use is from 1740 in the sense of "conversion of money to property in hopes of profit," and by 1837 in the sense "amount of money invested." For evolution of the commercial senses, see invest.

"keeper of a bank," 1530s, agent noun formed from bank (n.1), possibly modeled on French banquier (16c.).

"reduction of investment," 1938, first recorded in writings of J.M. Keynes, from dis- + investment. The verb disinvest in the economic sense is a back-formation attested from 1961. Related: Disinvested; disinvesting.

"the business of a banker," 1735, verbal noun from bank (v.1).

"investment in or manifestation through a physical body; a bringing into or presentation in or through a form," 1824, from embody + -ment.

1765, from French tontine, named for Lorenzo Tonti, Neapolitan banker in Paris who in 1653 first proposed this method of raising money in France.

1580s, "to screen, protect," from exposure, attack, injury, etc., from shelter (n.); in the income investment sense, "protect from taxation," by 1955. The intransitive meaning "to take shelter" is from 1590s. Related: Sheltered; sheltering.

also pay-back, 1946, "net return on profits from an investment," from the verbal phrase, from pay (v.) + back (adj.). Meaning "revenge, retaliation" is by 1957.

"to act as a banker," 1727, from bank (n.1). As "to deposit in a bank" from 1833. Figurative sense of "to rely on" (i.e. "to put money on") is from 1884, U.S. colloquial. Related: Banked; banking; bankable.

investment scam by which early investors are paid off from the contributions of later ones, 1957, in reference to Charles Ponzi (1882-1949), who perpetrated such a scheme in the U.S. 1919-20.