ELI5 Reverse Mortgages - what's the David Bowie similarity?

What are reverse mortgages in the simplest terms? What do they have to do with the singer David Bowie? What does the French origins of the word mortgage mean?

 

... We explain like i'm five!

 

Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community and in particular the following users whose questions and comments formed the basis of this discussion: asldkja, thameus, bunka77, world_leader_pretend, legends444, bumbling_bear, huskypupper and pulpheroe

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