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lucre - 5 dictionary results
lu⋅cre
[loo-ker] 
–noun
| monetary reward or gain; money. |
Origin:
1350–1400; ME < L lucrum profit; akin to OE lēan reward, G Lohn, Goth, ON laun
1350–1400; ME < L lucrum profit; akin to OE lēan reward, G Lohn, Goth, ON laun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To lucre
| lu·cre (lōō'kər) n. Money or profits. [Middle English, from Latin lucrum; see lau- in Indo-European roots.] Word History: When William Tyndale translated aiskhron kerdos, "shameful gain" (Titus 1:11), as filthy lucre in his edition of the Bible, he was tarring the word lucre for the rest of its existence. But we cannot lay the pejorative sense of lucre completely at Tyndale's door. He was merely a link, albeit a strong one, in a process that had begun long before with respect to the ancestor of our word, the Latin word lucrum, "material gain, profit." This process was probably controlled by the inevitable conjunction of profit, especially monetary profit, with evils such as greed. In Latin lucrum also meant "avarice," and in Middle English lucre, besides meaning "monetary gain, profit," meant "illicit gain." Furthermore, many of the contexts in which the neutral sense of the word appeared were not wholly neutral, as in "It is a wofull thyng . . . ffor lucre of goode . . . A man to fals his othe [it is a sad thing for a man to betray his oath for monetary gain]." Tyndale thus merely helped the process along when he gave us the phrase filthy lucre. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Lucre
Lu"cre\, n. [F. lucre, L. lucrum.] Gain in money or goods; profit; riches; -- often in an ill sense. The lust of lucre and the dread of death. --Pope.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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lucre
c.1380, from L. lucrum "gain, profit," from PIE base *lu-/*leu- (cf. Gk. apo-lanein "to enjoy," Goth. launs, Ger. lohn "wages, reward," and possibly Skt. lotam, lotram "booty"). Filthy lucre (Tit. i:11) is Tyndale's rendering of Gk. aischron kerdos.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Lucre
from the Lat. lucrum, "gain." 1 Tim. 3:3, "not given to filthy lucre." Some MSS. have not the word so rendered, and the expression has been omitted in the Revised Version.
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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