lucre

See also: lucré

English

WOTD – 20 July 2018

Etymology

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”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- (“gain, profit”) + *-tlom (variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting tools or instruments)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈl(j)uː.kə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈluː.kɚ/
• Rhymes: -uːkə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: lu‧cre

Noun

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

• mammon

Derived terms

• filthy lucre

Related terms

• lucrative
• lucratively
• lucrativeness
• Lucretia
• Lucretius
• lucriferous
• lucrific

 

Translations

money, riches, or wealth

• Afrikaans: rykdom
• Bulgarian: богатство (bg) n (bogatstvo)
• Dutch: gewin (nl), profijt (nl)
• Finnish: pätäkkä (fi) (slang)
• French: gain (fr) m, profit (fr) m, lucre (fr) m
• Macedonian: пе́чалба f (péčalba), па́ри f pl (pári), до́бивка f (dóbivka), бо́гатство n (bógatstvo)
• Scottish Gaelic: prothaid f
• Spanish: lucro (es)
• Welsh: budrelw m

Further reading

• lucre (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• cruel, ulcer

French

Noun

lucre m (plural lucres)

1. lucre

Further reading

• “lucre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Verb

lucre

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

Portuguese

Verb

lucre

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

Spanish

Verb

lucre

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