usurer

Anglo-Norman, from Old French usurier, Latin ūsūra (“interest”).

Compare usurper and use

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈjuːʒəɹə/, /ˈjuːzjəɹə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈjuːʒəɹəɹ/, /ˈjuːʒɹəɹ/[1]

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usurer (plural usurers)

1. A person who loans money to others and charges interest, particularly at an illegal, exorbitant, or unfair rate.
   • 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:

     Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
     So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?

   • 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter XLIII, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC:

     "You can go to the Carpetbag usurers if you want money."

• banker, loan shark

• saraf (early modern Middle East & India), shroff (early modern India & SE Asia)

• usuress (rare)
• usurial
• usurious
• usury

• rusure

usurer

1. Alternative form of usurere

usurer

1. indefinite plural of usur.