lucre

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See also: lucré

English[edit]

WOTD – 20 July 2018

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English lūcre, lucor, lucour, lucur (“gain in money, profit; money; wages; illicit gain; advantage, benefit”), from Old French lucre or Latin lucrum (“advantage, profit; love of gain, avarice”),[1][2] from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- (“gain, profit”) + *-tlom (variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting tools or instruments)).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

lucre (uncountable)

  1. Money, riches, or wealth, especially when seen as having a corrupting effect or causing greed, or obtained in an underhanded manner.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 3:2–3:
      A Biſhop then muſt be blameleſſe, the huſband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behauiour, giuen to hoſpitalitie, apt to teach; / Not giuen to wine, no ſtriker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not couetous; […]
    • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, →OCLC, page 145:
      By-ends and Silver-Demas both agree; / One calls, the other runs, that he may be / A ſharer in his lucre; ſo theſe two / Take up in this World, and no further go.
    • 1810 July 13, William Cobbett, “To the Reader”, in Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register, volume XVIII, number 1, London: Printed by T[homas] C[urson] Hansard, Peterborough Court, Fleet Street; and sold by Richard Bagshaw, Brydges Street, Covent-Garden, and John Budd, Pall-Mall, published 14 July 1810, →OCLC, columns 13–14:
      When a man bargains for the price of maintaining such or such principles, or of endeavouring to make out such or such a case, without believing in the soundness of the principles or the truth of the case; such a man, whether he touch the cash (or paper-money) before or after the performance of his work, and whether he work with his tongue or his pen, may, I think be fairly charged with seeking after "base lucre;" for he, in such case, manifestly sells not only the use of his talents, but his sincerity into the bargain, and drives a traffic as nearly allied to soul-selling as any thing in this world can be; […]
    • 1884 December, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Body Snatcher”, in Pall Mall Christmas “Extra”, London, →OCLC; republished as “The Body-snatcher”, in The Novels and Tales of Robert Louis Stevenson: The Black Arrow; The Misadventures of John Nicholson; The Body-snatcher, volume 8, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895, →OCLC, page 421:
      […] [I]t's only fair that you should pocket the lucre. I've had my share already.

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “lūcre, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “lucre, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

French[edit]

Noun[edit]

lucre m (plural lucres)

  1. lucre

Further reading[edit]

Galician[edit]

Verb[edit]

lucre

  1. inflection of lucrar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Portuguese[edit]

Verb[edit]

lucre

  1. inflection of lucrar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish[edit]

Verb[edit]

lucre

  1. inflection of lucrar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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