lucre means money, riches, or wealth, especially when seen as having a corrupting effect or causing greed, or obtained in an underhanded manner. It carries an Arena rating of 1577, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, lucre ranks #1,838 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,296 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,109 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #5,315 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
lucre is pronounced /ˈluːkə/.
Why “lucre” is a great word
Money or profit, especially when regarded as sordid, distasteful, or obtained by dishonorable means. From Middle English lūcre, from Old French lucre, from Latin lucrum ("profit, gain; avarice"), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- ("gain, profit") + *-tlom (instrumental suffix). First attested in Middle English (14th century). Unlike "profit," a neutral ledger entry, or "wealth," an abstract abundance, lucre is gain made heavy with contempt. It is the greasy coins counted in a back room, the envelope passed beneath a table, the inheritance that poisons a family before the will is read—the kind of gain that, once accepted, settles into the soul like a stain no amount of soap can reach.
Etymology
From Middle English lūcre, lucor, lucour, lucur (“gain in money, profit; money; wages; illicit gain; advantage, benefit”), from Old French lucre or Latin lucrum (“advantage, profit; love of gain, avarice”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- (“gain, profit”) + *-tlom (variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting tools or instruments)).
noun
- Money, riches, or wealth, especially when seen as having a corrupting effect or causing greed, or obtained in an underhanded manner.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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