Bribing

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈbɹaɪbɪŋ/

Definitions

1. The act of using incentives to alter someone's decisions is referred to as unethical coercion
2. Engaging in the process of offering rewards to motivate favorable outcomes is classified as corrupt influence
3. The practice of offering illicit rewards to manipulate decisions is known as corrupt inducement

Etymology: The verb "bribing" is simply the -ing form of "bribe," so its story is really the story of the base word. Middle English had "bribe," which came from Old French "briber," a verb meaning "go begging," and that verb was itself built from the noun "bribe," meaning "a gift" or a morsel of food given to a beggar. The sense of a handout that reached the beggar's hand has a wry edge: the thing given was originally small, informal charity. The shift from "beggar's crust" to "illegal payment" happened gradually. Once "briber" was used for the act of soliciting alms, the word drifted toward the idea of obtaining something through a gift, and by Middle English it carried the sense of a reward given to win a favour, often a corrupt one. The modern meaning of paying someone to act dishonestly, which is what "bribing" describes, grew out of that transactional sense of the gift.

Synonyms: corrupting, suborning

Antonyms: honoring, rewarding