Fifa has been dealing with a slew of bribery
allegations. But where exactly does the word
"bribe" come from?
The medieval word "briber" meant a robber,
beggar, trickster or general rascal and "bribe"
meant various illicit gains they made.
Explanations of the words' origin usually cite
Randle Cotgrave's 1611 French-English
dictionary which says bribe in French means "a
peece, lump or cantill of bread given to a begger".
Cotgrave quotes a proverb which says there is no
life like that of a company of beggars "quand ils
ont assemblé leurs bribes" - when they have
pooled their "bribes".
He also says the verb "briber" meaning to beg or
eat greedily is onomatopoeic, and comes from
"the sound made by the lips of a horse that eats
provender".
But dictionaries try to link the hunk of bread to
words in many languages for breaking up or
dividing.
And Spanish ones explaining the related word
bribon claim it comes from the Greek "biblia" -
meaning books, and therefore wisdom, and
therefore craftiness.
Tracing the origin of a word which is mostly
spoken rather than written and has no clear
ancestry can soon land you in a kind of
etymological soup. Did the villainy come after the
begging, or the bread before the greed, or the
other way round?
It took a while for "bribe" to settle down to its
modern meaning of an illicit gift made to secure
favourable treatment.
In the early 16th Century it was still possible to
use "briber" to mean one who extorts a bribe,
rather than offers it, and the meaning of "bribe"
can be very close to "blackmail".
The jurist and philosopher Francis Bacon wrote in
1605, in a (very free) translation of Proverbs
28.21, that "a judge were better be a briber than a
respecter of persons; for a corrupt judge
offendeth not so lightly as a facile".
But the modern meaning was now dominant, with
the King James Bible (1604-11) noting that the
sons of Samuel "turned aside after lucre, and took
bribes, and perverted judgment" and
Shakespeare's Gloucester insisting in Henry VI
Part 2 (1591) that he "never had one penny bribe
from France"..
allegations. But where exactly does the word
"bribe" come from?
The medieval word "briber" meant a robber,
beggar, trickster or general rascal and "bribe"
meant various illicit gains they made.
Explanations of the words' origin usually cite
Randle Cotgrave's 1611 French-English
dictionary which says bribe in French means "a
peece, lump or cantill of bread given to a begger".
Cotgrave quotes a proverb which says there is no
life like that of a company of beggars "quand ils
ont assemblé leurs bribes" - when they have
pooled their "bribes".
He also says the verb "briber" meaning to beg or
eat greedily is onomatopoeic, and comes from
"the sound made by the lips of a horse that eats
provender".
But dictionaries try to link the hunk of bread to
words in many languages for breaking up or
dividing.
And Spanish ones explaining the related word
bribon claim it comes from the Greek "biblia" -
meaning books, and therefore wisdom, and
therefore craftiness.
Tracing the origin of a word which is mostly
spoken rather than written and has no clear
ancestry can soon land you in a kind of
etymological soup. Did the villainy come after the
begging, or the bread before the greed, or the
other way round?
It took a while for "bribe" to settle down to its
modern meaning of an illicit gift made to secure
favourable treatment.
In the early 16th Century it was still possible to
use "briber" to mean one who extorts a bribe,
rather than offers it, and the meaning of "bribe"
can be very close to "blackmail".
The jurist and philosopher Francis Bacon wrote in
1605, in a (very free) translation of Proverbs
28.21, that "a judge were better be a briber than a
respecter of persons; for a corrupt judge
offendeth not so lightly as a facile".
But the modern meaning was now dominant, with
the King James Bible (1604-11) noting that the
sons of Samuel "turned aside after lucre, and took
bribes, and perverted judgment" and
Shakespeare's Gloucester insisting in Henry VI
Part 2 (1591) that he "never had one penny bribe
from France"..
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