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usury

UK/ˈjuːʒəɹi/US/ˈjuʒəɹi/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,066 of 15,258neutral

Usury is lending money at an unfairly high rate. Condemned as usury, the sin of usury, laws against usury.

It first meant charging any interest at all, which the medieval church forbade outright, and the meaning narrowed to excessive interest as lending became ordinary. Islamic finance still prohibits it and works around it by structure.

Attributed to Albrecht Dürer · Public domain

Definitions of usury

  1. 1nounusuryLending money at an unfairly high rate.C1

    “In the Middle Ages, the church condemned usury as a sin.”

usury is a lending.

Where it comes from

Latin usura means interest on a loan, from usus, use.

  1. Latin

    ūsūria

  2. Middle English

    usurie

  3. English, today

    usury

Built from

  • ūsūra · Latin — lending at interest, usury
  • ūsus · Latin — use
  • utor · Latin — to use

From Middle English usurie, from Latin ūsūria, from ūsūra (“lending at interest, usury”) from ūsus (“use”), from stem of utor (“to use”). Compare usurp and use.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

usury in the wild

  • Someone who practises usury can be called a usurer, but in modern colloquial English may be called a loan shark.

    Usury

  • In many historical societies including ancient Christian, Jewish, and Islamic societies, usury meant the charging of interest of any kind, and was considered wrong, or was made illegal.

    Usury

  • The term was often used in a derogatory sense, as Lombard banking was associated with the sin of usury.

    Lombard banking

  • Supreme Court decision holding that state anti-usury laws regulating interest rates cannot be enforced against nationally chartered banks based in other states.

    Marquette National Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp.

  • The decline of the Byzantine Empire led to a growth of capital in Europe, so the Catholic Church tolerated zinskauf as a way to avoid prohibitions on usury.

    Zinskauf

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the ūsus family

usualunusual

usury — used about once every 33,333 pages · #14,066 · point at the bar for the others