usurious

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English

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WOTD – 22 February 2016

Etymology

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From usury +‎ -ous.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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usurious (comparative more usurious, superlative most usurious)

  1. Of or pertaining to usury.
    • [1710?], A Common Law Treatise of Usury, and Usurious Contracts: Wherein is Set forth, the Nature of Usury, and what Contracts are Said Usurious in our Law. [...], London: Printed for John Wickins, and are to be sold by Robert Gosling, at the Mitre over against Chancery-Lane-End in Fleet-Street, →OCLC, page 4:
      If an Executor pay an Uſurious Bond, other Creditors may make a Devaſtavit of it, Hob. p. 167. If a Man be bound in an Obligation Uſurious, the Bond is void between the Parties, yea and Strangers ſhall take the advantage of it; and therefore if ſuch an Obligor makes his Executor and die, and the Executor pay the uſurious Bond, other Creditors may ſhew it, and make a Devaſtavit of it, in Winchcomb and the Biſhop of Wincheſter’s Caſe.
    • 1814 November 21, Sir Vicary Gibbs, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, “Harrison v. Francis Hannel”, in William Pyle Taunton, editor, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of Common Pleas, and other Courts, from Trinity Term, 53 Geo. III. 1813, to Michaelmas Term, 55 Geo. III. 1814, both Inclusive. With Tables of the Cases and Principal Matters, volume V, London: Printed for Joseph Butterworth and Son, 43, Fleet Street, and John Cooke, Ormond-Quay, Dublin, published 1815, →OCLC, page 784:
      The fallacy of his [Justice William Best’s] argument is, that he supposes the objection to the plaintiff’s recovery to be, that his contract with the defendant is usurious; whereas the objection really arises from the circumstance that these notes are deposited to enforce another contract, which was usurious, and the defence rests on this — not that more than 5 per cent. is reserved by these bills, but that they are destined to enforce a contract which is usurious.
    • 1824, J[eremiah] O'Callaghan, Usury, or Interest, Proved to be Repugnant to the Divine and Ecclesiastical Laws, and Destructive to Civil Society, New York, N.Y.: Published by the author. John M‘Loughlin, Printer, page 45:
      Behold the name given by Christ to both the usurer and his usurious borrower. Sinners lend to sinners; each is a sinner, the usurer and the borrower.
    • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Book II. The Ancient Monk. Chapter IV. Abbot Hugo.”, in Past and Present, London: Chapman & Hall, 193 Piccadilly, →OCLC, page 51:
      His one worldly care was to raise ready money; sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. And how he raised it: From usurious insatiable Jews; every fresh Jew sticking on him like a fresh horseleech, sucking his and our life out; crying continually, Give! give!
  2. Exorbitant.

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