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

• IPA^(key): /ˈluːkə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈluːkəɹ/
• 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.
   • 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

• Dutch: gewin (nl), profijt (nl)
• Finnish: pätäkkä (fi) (slang)
• French: gain (fr) m, profit (fr) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Scottish Gaelic: prothaid f
• Spanish: lucro (es)
• Welsh: budrelw m

Further reading

• lucre (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• cruel, ulcer

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Portuguese

Verb

lucre

1. Template:pt-verb-form-of

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Spanish

Verb

lucre

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of lucrar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of lucrar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of lucrar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of lucrar.