the.com/arrears
The debt that keeps billing you after the party's long over.
means Money you owe that's overdue — payments you should have already made but haven't.
from From the Old French arere, 'behind, backward' (built from the Latin ad retro — literally 'to the rear'). The same retro root that gives us things lagging or looking backward shows up here as debt that's fallen behind schedule — you're not broke, you're just stuck in the back of the line you were supposed to have already cleared.
- origin
- from old french for behind, literally
- common use
- rent or child support unpaid on schedule
- sneaky meaning
- paid in arrears just means paid after service
- not always bad
- some salaries are legally paid in arrears