venal
adjEtymology Borrowed from French vénal, from Old French venel, from Latin vēnālis (“for sale”), from vēnum (“something for sale”); compare English vend.
1
Archaic For sale; available for purchase.
- Because lips libertine and and venal had murmured such words to him, he believed but little in the candour of hers; […].1886, Gustave Flaubert, chapter XII, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners […], London: Vizetelly & Co., […], →OCLC, part II, page 210:
2
Of a position, privilege etc.: available for purchase rather than assigned on merit.
- Thus, regimental commands in the army were – as with the judiciary or the financial bureaucracy – venal posts, which were purchased, bequeathed and sold among the nobility.2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 140:
3
Capable of being bought (of a person); willing to take bribes.
4
Corrupt, mercenary.
Of behaviour etc.
- Though there is a disposition in mankind, to declaim against the corruption and peculation of the present times, as being more venal than formerly; yet, if we look back to different periods, we shall find statesmen and politicians, as selfish and corrupt, […] as those who have lately figured on the political stage.1785, The Times, 9 Feb 1785, page 1, column C