Usury

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈjuːʒəɹi/

Definitions

1. The practice of lending money at an excessively high or illegal rate of interest
2. The act of charging illegally high interest rates on borrowed funds or profiting excessively from another's financial necessity
3. The practice of advancing funds at unlawfully excessive interest rates or exploiting a borrower's financial distress for extreme profit

Etymology: Latin "ūsūra" meant the use of money, which is to say the fee paid for having it. The Romans did not have a separate word for interest in the modern sense: "ūsūra" simply named the payment made for the use of a loan, and it came from "ūsus," the past participle of "ūtī," "to use." English took the word through Middle English "usurie," and the sense of a lender's use of money only gradually darkened into the modern meaning of charging excessive or illegal rates. The word's close relative "usurp" shares the same Latin root, "ūtī," through a different route. Both words are built on the idea of using something, and "usurp" came to mean seizing or using a thing that belongs to someone else. Our word for profiting from another's necessity is thus the same verb that gave us the everyday word "use," which makes the family resemblance easy to see once it is pointed out.

Synonyms: lending, interest

Antonyms: borrowing