Bribery

How to spell bribery

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce bribery

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bribery mean?

1. nounThe act of giving or taking money or favours dishonestly to influence the actions of someone in a position of trust.

Bribery in a sentence

• The official was arrested for bribery after accepting cash from a contractor.

• The company introduced strict policies to prevent bribery among its purchasing staff.

Where does bribery come from?

Language of origin: French

The word grows out of bribe, which English took from Old French in the 1300s. In that early French the noun bribe literally meant a morsel or lump of bread, especially a piece handed to a beggar, and the related verb briber meant to beg or to scrounge. As the word settled into English it shifted from the idea of begging for scraps toward the darker notion of money or favours extorted or handed over to corrupt someone, and by the late 1400s a bribe meant a payment made to pervert someone's judgement. The abstract noun bribery, formed by adding the productive suffix -ery that names a practice (as in robbery and trickery), names the whole corrupt activity rather than a single payment. A useful spelling cue is to picture the base word bribe with its silent final e, then simply drop that e before -ery, which is why the middle vowel stays as the i of bribe rather than turning into anything else.

How the word is built

• bribe (from Old French bribe: a morsel given to a beggar)
• -ery (noun suffix denoting a practice or activity)