lucre

lu·cre  (lkr)

n.

Money or profits.

---

[Middle English, from Latin lucrum; see lau- in Indo-European roots.]

Word History: When William Tyndale translated aiskhron kerdos, "shameful gain" (Titus 1:11), as filthy lucre in his edition of the Bible, he was tarring the word lucre for the rest of its existence. But we cannot lay the pejorative sense of lucre completely at Tyndale's door. He was merely a link, albeit a strong one, in a process that had begun long before with respect to the ancestor of our word, the Latin word lucrum, "material gain, profit." This process was probably controlled by the inevitable conjunction of profit, especially monetary profit, with evils such as greed. In Latin lucrum also meant "avarice," and in Middle English lucre, besides meaning "monetary gain, profit," meant "illicit gain." Furthermore, many of the contexts in which the neutral sense of the word appeared were not wholly neutral, as in "It is a wofull thyng . . . ffor lucre of goode . . . A man to fals his othe [it is a sad thing for a man to betray his oath for monetary gain]." Tyndale thus merely helped the process along when he gave us the phrase filthy lucre.

---

lucre [loo-ker]

Noun

Usually facetious money or wealth: filthy lucre [Latin lucrum gain]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	lucre - informal terms for money             boodle, clams, dinero, gelt, kale, lettuce, lolly, moolah, pelf, shekels, simoleons, wampum, loot, dough, bread, cabbage, sugar, scratch money - the most common medium of exchange; functions as legal tender; "we tried to collect the money he owed us"
	2.	lucre - the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses) net income, net profit, profit, profits, earnings, net income - the financial gain (earned or unearned) accruing over a given period of time earning per share - the portion of a company's profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock windfall profit - profit that occurs unexpectedly as a consequence of some event not controlled by those who profit from it cleanup, killing - a very large profit fast buck, quick buck - quick or easy earnings, "they are traders out to make a fast buck" filthy lucre - shameful profit; "he would sell his soul for filthy lucre" gross profit, gross profit margin, margin - (finance) the net sales minus the cost of goods and services sold share, percentage, portion, part - assets belonging to or due to or contributed by an individual person or group; "he wanted his share in cash" markup - the amount added to the cost to determine the asking price accumulation - (finance) profits that are not paid out as dividends but are added to the capital base of the corporation dividend - that part of the earnings of a corporation that is distributed to its shareholders; usually paid quarterly