(verb) – In old English law. To pawn or pledge; to give as security for a payment or performance; to wage or wager.
(noun) – In old English law. A pawn or pledge; something deposited as security for the performance of some act or the payment of money, and to be forfeited on failure or non-performance. Glanv. lib. 10, c. 6; Britt c. 27.
A mortgage is a dead-gage or pledge; for, whatsoever profit it yields, it redeems not itself, unless the whole amount secured is paid at the appointed time. Cowell.
In French law. The contract of pledge or pawn; also the article pawned. Gage, estates in. Those held in vadio, or pledge. They are of two kinds: (1) Vivum vadium, or living pledge, or vifgage; (2) mortuum vadium, or dead pledge, better known as “mortgage.”