Word of the Day Archive
Sunday September 2, 2012
vigorish \VIG-er-ish\
, noun:
1. Interest paid to a moneylender, especially a usurer.
2. A charge paid on a bet, as to a bookie.
But a washed and polished white bread car driven by a single white man in this neighborhood could mean a cop, or worse yet, a Wise Guy hit man looking for somebody who was behind in their vigorish.
-- Alan Souter, Enclave
We are speaking in a range of one thousand dollars a week vigorish.
-- Don DeLillo, Libra
Vigorish is an Americanism that arose in the 1910s. It is most likely an adaptation of the Yiddish slang výigrysh from the Russian word meaning "profit."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for vigorish
