Pledge is a verb, meaning to promise solemnly, and a noun, meaning the promise or its maker or its object.

General

The word pledge is used as a synonym for oath, a formal and binding engagement, as in Pledge of Allegiance. An oath (from Old Saxon eoth) is either a promise or a statement of fact calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually a god, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. ... Dorothea Lange photograph of Japanese-American students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance The Pledge of Allegiance is a promise or oath of allegiance to the United States, and to its national flag. ...

Initiant

A pledge is also a term used for a new member of a fraternity or sorority, especially before their initiation as a brother or sister. This is called the pledge period and sometimes involved hazing, although new guidelines to reduce hazing have significantly reduced hazing to pledges and some national fraternities have abolished the pledge process altogether to prevent hazing and forbid brothers of these fraternities to refer to new brothers as pledges. "New member" is the new more politically correct term being used by many offices of Greek affairs at American universities to refer to those people once called pledges. While the terms fraternity and sorority (from the Latin words frater and soror, meaning brother and sister respectively) may be used to describe any number of social and charitable organizations, including the Lions Club, Epsilon Sigma Alpha, Rotary International, and the Shriners, in the United States and Canada fraternities and... Coming from the Latin, initiation implies a beginning. ... Hazing is often ritualistic harassment, abuse or humiliation with requirements to perform meaningless tasks; sometimes as a way of initiation into a social group. ... Political correctness is the alteration of language to redress real or alleged injustices and discrimination or to avoid offense. ...

Product

A furniture polish produced by SC Johnson Wax. S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. ...

Legal

In law a pledge (also pawn) is a bailment of personal property as a security for some debt or engagement (Story on Bailments, 286). This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... Personal property is a type of property. ... Debt is that which is owed. ... American jurist Joseph Story Joseph Story (September 18, 1779 - September 10, 1845), American jurist, was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts. ...

The term is also used to denote the property which constitutes the security. Pledge is the pignus of Roman law, from which most of the modern law on the subject is derived. It differs from hypothec and from the more usual kind of mortgage in that the pledge is in the possession of the pledgee; it also differs from mortgage in being confined to personal property. A mortgage of personal property in most cases takes the name and form of a bill of sale. Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome. ... A mortgage is a method of using property as security for the payment of a debt. ... A mortgage is a method of using property as security for the payment of a debt. ... A bill of sale is a legal document made by a seller to a purchaser, reporting that on a specific date, at a specific locality, and for a particular sum of money or other value received, the seller sold to the purchaser a specific item of personal, or parcel of...

• The chief difference between Roman and English law is that certain things (e.g. apparel, furniture and instruments of tillage) could not be pledged in Roman law, while there is no such restriction in English law. In the case of a pledge, a special property passes to the pledgee, sufficient to enable him to maintain an action against a wrongdoer, but the general property, that is the property subject to the pledge, remains in the pledgor.

As the pledge is for the benefit of both parties, the pledgee is bound to exercise only ordinary care over the pledge. The pledgee has the right of selling the pledge if the pledgor make default in payment at the stipulated time. No right is acquired by the wrongful sale of a pledge except in the case of property passing by delivery, such as money or negotiable securities. In the case of a wrongful sale by a pledgee, the pledgor cannot recover the value of the pledge without a tender of the amount due.

• The law of Scotland as to pledge generally agrees with that of England, as does also that of the United States.

The main difference is that in Scotland and in Louisiana a pledge cannot be sold unless with judicial authority. Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within Europe Scotlands location within the United Kingdom Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 km² 1. ... Official language(s) English and French Capital Baton Rouge Largest city New Orleans at last census; probably Baton Rouge since Hurricane Katrina Area  Ranked 31st  - Total 51,885 sq. ...

In some of the U.S. states the common law as it existed apart from the Factors Acts is still followed; in others the factor has more or less restricted power to give a title by pledge. A state of the United States (a U.S. state) is any one of the fifty states (four of which officially favor the term commonwealth) which, along with the District of Columbia, form the United States of America. ...

• See also Security interests - pledge

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. A security interest is an proprietary right in a debtors property that secures payment or performance of an obligation. ... Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...