bribe

英 [bra?b] 美[bra?b]

近義詞graft off buy

IELTSCET4TEM4GRE考研CET6中低頻詞常用詞匯

復數:?bribes;第三人稱單數:?bribes;過去式:?bribed;過去分詞:?bribed;現在分詞:?bribing;

1. bread => bribe.
2. 源自古法語，意為用做施舍物的一片面包。

bribe 賄賂

在古英語指施舍給乞丐的小片面包，詞源同break, 分開，小塊。

bribe: bribe: [14] The origin of bribe is obscure, and its semantic history is particularly involved. The word first turns up in Old French, as a noun meaning ‘piece of bread, especially one given to a beggar’. From this, the progression of senses seems to have been to a more general ‘alms’; then to the ‘practice of living on alms’; then, pejoratively, to simple ‘begging’. From there it was a short step to ‘stealing’, and that was the meaning the verb had when first recorded in English.

The shift to the current application to financial corruption occurred in the 16th century, originally, it seems, in the context of judges and others in authority who exacted, or ‘stole’, money in exchange for favours such as lenient sentences.
bribe (n.): late 14c., "thing stolen," from Old French bribe "bit, piece, hunk; morsel of bread given to beggars" (14c., compare Old French bribeor "vagrant, beggar"), from briber, brimber "to beg," a general Romanic word (Gamillscheg marks it as Rotwelsch, i.e. "thieves' jargon"), of uncertain origin; old sources suggest Celtic (compare Breton breva "to break"). Shift of meaning to "gift given to influence corruptly" is by mid-15c.
bribe (v.): late 14c., "pilfer, steal," also "practice extortion," from Old French briber "go begging," from bribe (see bribe (n.)). Related: Bribed; bribing.

3. I didn't have to bribe anyone; it was all open and aboveboard.: 我沒有必要賄賂任何人, 這完全是光明正大的.