usurer
nounUK /ˈjuːʒəɹə/ · US /ˈjuːʒəɹəɹ/
Etymology Anglo-Norman, from Old French usurier, Latin ūsūra (“interest”).
1
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 (ſauing one minute, when in two words they cryde for mercy,) haue they ſpent, in crying for vengeance againſt you.1593, Thomas Nash, Christs Teares Over Iervsalem. Whereunto is annexed a comparatiue admonition to London., London: Thomas Thorp, published 1613, →OCLC, page 105; republished as Christ's Tears Over Jerusalem: Whereunto is Annexed A comparative Admonition to London, 1815, page 97:
- Profitless usurer, why dost thou use So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 4”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
1 more example
- "You can go to the Carpetbag usurers if you want money."1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter XLIII, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC:
- Synonyms
- banker, loan shark