usury
usury
Pronunciation
IPA Phonetic Spelling and Syllable Breakdown
The IPA phonetic spelling for "usury" is: /ˈjuːʒəri/
Syllable Sounds Breakdown
The word "usury" has three syllables:
First syllable (us-): /ˈjuː/ (The sound of the letter 'u' in "unit" or "use")
Second syllable (-ur-): /ʒə/ (The sound of 's' in "measure" or the 'z' in "azure," followed by an unstressed schwa sound)
Third syllable (-y): /ri/ (The sound of 're' in "tree" or "three")
Word Form Variations
The word "usury" primarily functions as a noun. Other related word forms, derived from the same root, include:
Noun (Plural): usuries (referring to multiple instances or kinds of the practice/rate)
Noun (Person): usurer (a person who practices usury)
Adjective: usurious (relating to or constituting usury)
Adverb: usuriously (in a usurious manner)
Definitions, Synonyms and Antonyms
Noun: Usury
Definition 1 (Common/General Use): The act or practice of lending money at an interest rate that is excessive, unconscionable, or unjustly high, often taking advantage of a borrower's desperation or lack of financial alternatives.
Synonyms: Loan-sharking, predatory lending, profiteering, extortion.
Antonyms: Fair lending, ethical finance, philanthropy, charity.
Definition 2 (Specific/Legal Use): An unlawful interest rate or the total amount of interest charged that is in excess of the maximum rate permitted by a specific state or national law.
Synonyms: Vigorish, exorbitant interest, illegal interest.
Antonyms: Legal interest, reasonable rate, prime rate.
Adjective: Usurious
Definition: Characterized by or constituting excessive or unlawfully high interest rates on a loan; financially exploitative.
Synonyms: Exorbitant, extortionate, unconscionable, grasping, predatory.
Antonyms: Equitable, reasonable, moderate, fair.
Adverb: Usuriously
Definition: In a manner that involves the practice of charging excessive or illegal interest.
Synonyms: Extortionately, rapaciously, excessively, unconscionably.
Antonyms: Equitably, reasonably, moderately, fairly.
Examples of Use
📰 Newspapers and Online Publications
Legal/Financial News: Articles frequently discuss the conflict between consumer loans and legal limits. For example, reports often focus on payday lending, stating that some companies "rely on regulatory loopholes and rent-a-bank schemes to skirt state usury laws and charge triple-digit interest rates" (Center for Responsible Lending, June 2023).
Editorials: Commentators on economic ethics might invoke the moral weight of the word. A piece could argue that modern credit card interest, while technically legal, "approaches the moral threshold of usury that ancient thinkers so feared" (The New York Times, October 2024).
Political Discourse: Politicians may use the term to condemn financial practices. A representative might be quoted promising to introduce legislation that closes loopholes allowing companies to "extract crippling interest rates that amount to little more than financial usury on vulnerable families."
📚 Literature and Historical Texts
Classic Literature: The concept of usury is central to William Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice. The character of Shylock, the Jewish moneylender, is defined by his insistence on his bond and the usury he practices.
Example: "He lends out money gratis, and brings down / The rate of usance [a synonym for interest/usury] here with us in Venice." (William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, c. 1596).
Non-Fiction/Theology: Historical and religious texts frequently condemn the practice. The term often appears when discussing medieval Christian doctrine, which historically prohibited the charging of any interest on loans.
Example: "The Christian prohibitions on usury for centuries shaped the economic landscape of Europe, forcing non-Christians to become the primary moneylenders."
🎥 Entertainment Mediums and Public Discourse
Film/Television: The practice of usury, often called loan-sharking, is a common trope in crime and gangster films or television dramas. A plot line might revolve around a character who falls victim to a lender demanding impossibly high interest.
Example: A television crime drama could feature an investigator explaining to a victim that the astronomical repayment demanded by a criminal organization is classic usury.
Documentaries: Financial documentaries on poverty or economic inequality may use the term when discussing predatory lending to show the negative social consequences of high-interest credit.
Example: A voiceover in a documentary on consumer debt might state, "What began as a small loan quickly ballooned into a debt trap, a modern form of usury that stripped the borrower of everything they owned."
General Discourse: In casual conversations about personal finance, someone might use the term dramatically to express outrage at an extremely high interest charge.
Example: "I can't believe the interest rate they're offering on that credit card—it's practically usury!"
10 Famous Quotes Using Usury
"The most hated sort, and with the greatest reason, is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself, and not from the natural object of it." (Aristotle, Politics)
"If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury." (Exodus 22:25, King James Version)
"Where there is usury, there are wars." (Saint Ambrose of Milan)
"Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury." (Deuteronomy 23:19, King James Version)
"I know of but two definitions that can possibly be given of usury: one is, the taking of a greater interest than the law allows of." (Jeremy Bentham, Defence of Usury, 1787)
"He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor." (Proverbs 28:8, King James Version)
"Usury is the characteristic fact of the present system of civilization; and usury depends for its existence upon this super-added, social, unnatural value, which is given artificially to the material of the circulating medium." (William Batchelder Greene, Mutual Banking)
"Then you should have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received what was my own with usury." (Matthew 25:27, King James Version)
"Usury lives in the pores of production, as it were, just as the gods of Epicurus lived in the space between the worlds." (Karl Marx, Capital, Volume III)
"The true spirit of usury lies in taking an unjust and unreasonable advantage of their fellow creatures." (Justice Burnett, Earl of Chesterfield v. Janssen, 1750)
Etymology
The word usury traces its origins back through several languages, ultimately deriving from a very simple concept: use.
The Journey of the Word
Latin Root ($\text{ūsus}$): The foundation of the word is the Latin term $\text{ūsus}$, which simply means "use" or "a using." From this came the related term $\text{ūsūra}$, meaning "use" but also "interest paid for the use of money." At this stage, $\text{ūsūra}$ just meant the price of using someone else's money; it did not necessarily imply an excessive or unfair charge.
Medieval Latin ($\text{ūsūria}$): This word evolved into the Medieval Latin form $\text{ūsūria}$. During the Middle Ages, religious and legal scholars began strongly condemning the practice of charging any interest on a loan, especially to the poor. As a result, the word $\text{ūsūria}$ started to take on the negative connotation of charging interest, which was seen as morally wrong.
Old French/Anglo-French ($\text{usurie}$): The term passed into Old French and Anglo-French as $\text{usurie}$.
Middle English ($\text{usurie}$): It arrived in English as $\text{usurie}$ in the Middle English period, which is where its first known use in the language is recorded.
First Known Use and Meaning
First Known Use (Approximate): The word entered English around the 14th century (c. 1303).
Original Meaning: When it was first used in English, usury carried the historical meaning of "the practice of lending money at interest"—all interest, not just high interest.
Shift in Meaning: Over time, as commercial lending became more accepted, the word "interest" took over the neutral or reasonable rate, while usury kept its negative and moral weight, evolving to specifically mean "excessive or illegally high interest."
In simple terms, usury literally means a "using" of someone's money, but its meaning was corrupted by history to mean "a bad or exploitative use" of someone's need for money.
Phrases + Idioms Containing Usury
Phrases and idioms using the word usury are not common in modern English outside of legal, historical, and economic discussions. The word itself is often replaced in common speech by terms like "loan sharking" or "predatory lending."
Here is a list of phrases and idioms, supplemented with related terms for similar effect:
📜 Phrases and Idioms Using "Usury"
To practice usury: To engage in the act of lending money at illegally or excessively high interest rates.
To commit usury: To violate laws that restrict the maximum amount of interest that can be charged on a loan.
Usury laws: Legislation designed to protect consumers by setting a legal cap on interest rates.
Pay back with usury: To return a favor, injury, or debt with much greater intensity or amount than what was originally received. (This is a slightly archaic, figurative use.)
🦈 Related Idioms (Using Synonyms for Similar Effect)
The following idioms and phrases use synonyms to convey the idea of excessive or exploitative lending:
Loan sharking: The illegal practice of lending money at exorbitant interest rates, often backed by threats of violence.
Extortionate rate: An interest rate so high it constitutes a form of financial coercion or theft.
To bleed someone dry: To take all of a person's money or resources, typically slowly or unfairly (related to the effect of high-interest debt).
The debt trap: A situation where a cycle of borrowing at high interest makes it impossible to repay the principal amount (related to the result of usury).
A pound of flesh: A debt that is excessively harsh or nearly impossible to pay, where the lender demands a ruinous or literal sacrifice (from The Merchant of Venice, a play centered on usury).
Preying on the desperate: Describing the act of exploiting people in urgent financial need with unfair lending terms (related to the motivation for usury).
Vocabulary-Based Stories from SEA
Source Information
Definition of usury from The Academic Glossary at Self Exploration Academy, a Urikville Press Publication. © All rights reserved.
