WordWealth: usury - usurious

u·su·ry , n., pl. -ries.

1. the lending or practice of lending money at an exorbitant interest. 2. an exorbitant amount or rate of interest, esp. in excess of the legal rate. 3. Obs. interest paid for the use of money.

[1275–1325; ME usurie < ML ūsūria (cf. L ūsūra), equiv. to L ūs(us) (see USE) + -ūr(a) -URE + -ia -Y3]

usurious

u·su·ri·ous , adj.

Note carefully the pronunciation of these words.

1. practicing usury; charging illegal or exorbitant rates of interest for the use of money: a usurious moneylender. 2. constituting or characterized by usury: usurious rates of interest; a usurious loan.

[1600–10; USURY + -OUS]

—u·suri·ous·ly, adv.

—u·suri·ous·ness, n. (Random House Webster's, Unabridged). Look at Thesaurus

Dr Abdelkader Chachi, a specialist on Islamic banking with the Islamic Foundation in Leicestershire, says he was recently assured by Barclays that it would soon launch financial services complying with the Sharia law, as specified by the Koran – Muslims' holy book.--There are already some 102 Islamic investment funds complying with Sharia, says the organisation Failaka International. One underlying principle is that any income should be based on shared risk, not usury – defined as the lending of money at excessively high rates.--Dividends comply with Sharia, interest payments do not. Islamic investment funds, therefore, comprise equities not bonds. Dr Chachi says: "There are many Islamic funds, especially in America and Canada. All of them have their own Sharia council, which monitors their activities. Some will invest only in utilities and so on and will not deal in financial services companies that operate on the basis of interest payments." —— Paul Gosling; Ethnically-Friendly Funds; Independent; 01 Sept 2001

Humanity today is living in a huge brothel! One has only to glance at its press, films, fashion shows, beauty contests, ball-rooms, wine bars, and broadcasting stations! Or observe its mad lust for naked flesh, provocative postures, and sick, suggestive statements in literature, the arts, and the mass media! And add to all this, the system of usury which fuels men's voracity for money and engenders vile methods for its accumulation and investment". So wrote Sayyid Qutb, a leading ideologist of Islamic fundamentalism who was executed in Egypt in 1966. One of the most striking features of the various fundamentalisms, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish (Hindu too, for that matter), is the amount of bile and resentment harboured by their adherents and, in particular, their hatred of the values of Western secularised society.  —— Robert Irwin; The Visionaries Behind a Veil; Independent, 22 April 2000

My sister said that she would lend me ten dollars if I would clean her room for a week, a bargain that I considered to be usury. —— Word Smart; The Princeton Review; 2001

The organ scandal highlights two gross inefficiencies in Japan's statist marketplace. One involves the spectacular expansion of "shoko," or consumer finance companies, also known in the West as loan shark operations. Japan's prolonged recession has made it profitable for loan companies to offer rates of up to 40%--despite interest rates being at historic lows in Japan--because traditional banks are refusing to risk lending unsecured loans. That leaves individuals with little choice but to go to the high-flying loan companies and pay the usurious rates. —— Peter McKillop; 'Can You Lend a Liver'; Time Asia; Nov 3, 1999
 

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