usury

English

Etymology

From Latin usuria, from usura "lending at interest, usury" from usus 'use', from stem of uti 'to use'

Pronunciation

• enPR: yo͞o'zhə-rē, IPA: /ˈjuʒəɹi/, SAMPA: /"juZ@ri/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

Wikipedia usury (countable and uncountable; plural usuries)

1. (countable) An exorbitant rate of interest, in excess of any legal rates or at least immorally.
2. (uncountable) The practice of lending money at such rates.
3. (uncountable, archaic) The practice of lending money at interest.
   • 4th Century BCE, Template:rftranslator Aristotle, Politics, Book I, Part X,

     "The most hated sort, and with the greatest reason, is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself, and not from the natural object of it. For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest."

Related terms

• usurer
• usuress
• usurial
• usurious, usuriously, usuriousness

Translations

exorbitant rate of interest in excess of any legal rates

Czech: lichva (cs) f. Dutch: woekerrente f. or m. Finnish: kiskurikorko (fi) French: usure (fr) f. German: Wucher (de) m.

Greek: τοκογλυφία (el) (tokoglyfía) f. Hungarian: uzsora (hu), uzsorakamat (hu) Latin: ūsūra immodica (la) f. Norwegian: åger (no) m., åger (no) n. Polish: lichwa (pl) f. Serbo-Croatian: lihva (sh) Swedish: ocker (sv) n.

practice of lending money at illegal or unfair rates

Danish: åger (da) Dutch: woeker m. Finnish: koronkiskonta (fi) French: usure (fr) f. Galician: usura (gl) f. German: Wucherei f.

Greek: τοκογλυφία (el) (tokoglyfía) f. Hungarian: uzsoráskodás (hu) Latin: ūsūra immodica (la) f. Norwegian: åger (no) m. and n. Russian: ростовщичество (ru) n. Serbo-Croatian: kamatarenje (sh), lihvarenje (sh) Swedish: ocker (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Spanish: usura (es) f.

References

• “usury” in the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001