usurer means A person who loans money to others and charges interest, particularly at an exorbitant, exploitative, or illegal rate. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 81 out of 100.
usurer is pronounced /ˈjuːʒəɹə/.
Why “usurer” is a great word
A person who lends money at an exorbitant or illegally high rate of interest. Its etymology runs from Anglo-Norman, from Old French *usurier*, from Latin *ūsūra* ("interest, usury") + the agent suffix *-ier*. Unlike a 'banker,' who operates within a regulated, impersonal frame, or a 'philanthropist,' who seeks to dissolve need, the usurer cultivates and harvests it. He is the precise pen calculating compound misery on a promissory note, the inexorable shortening of the candle marking the debtor's time, the quiet corrosion of hope measured in weekly payments—a practitioner of an arithmetic where the final sum is always ruin.
Etymology
Anglo-Norman, from Old French usurier, Latin ūsūra (“interest”).
noun
- A person who loans money to others and charges interest, particularly at an exorbitant, exploitative, or illegal rate.“Vſurers, you are none of theſe cryers vnto God, but thoſe that hourely vnto God are most cryde out againſt. God hath cryde out vnto you by his Preachers, GOD hath cride out vnto you by the poore ; Pryſoners on their death-beds haue cride out of you : and when they haue had but one houre to interceſſionate for their ſoules, and ſue out the pardon of their numberleſſe ſins, the whole of that howre (”
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