venal adj. (VEE-nuhl, VEE-n-l)
1 : capable of being bought or obtained for money or other valuable consideration
: made matter of trade or barter;
especially : open to corrupt influence and especially bribery
- "venal legislator"
- "venal services"
- "venal votes"
—"venal." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged . Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (9 Jun. 2007).
————————————————————————————————— ETYMOLOGY
mmLatin venalis = for sale
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Venal IN USE
FROM "Tribal Loyalties" by Edward Wong—The New York Times, Sec. 6: Book Review, Sunday, May 27, 2007,18.
A book review of The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace, by Ali A. Allawi, Yale University Press.
"As the Iraq war enters its fifth year, an old saying can be heard more and more often in the homes, cafes and streets of the country: “Because of a lack of horses, they put saddles on the dogs.” There are no real Iraqi leaders, a Kurdish friend told me, and the Americans have blindly, and often desperately, propped up politicians who are venal, ineffective and more than a little megalomaniacal."
Venal IN USE
From "The Rove Da Vinci Code" by Frank Rich —The New York Times Magazine, May 21, 2006.
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VENAL versus VENIALPoliticians, particularly but not exclusively in the Karl Rove camp, seem to believe that voters of ''faith'' are suckers who can be lured into the big tent and then abandoned once their votes and campaign cash have been pocketed by the party for secular profit.
Nowhere is this game more naked than in the Jack Abramoff scandal: the felonious Washington lobbyist engaged his pal Ralph Reed, the former leader of the Christian Coalition, to shepherd Christian conservative leaders like James Dobson, Gary Bauer and the Rev. Donald Wildmon and their flocks into ostensibly ''anti-gambling'' letter-writing campaigns.They were all duped: in reality these campaigns were engineered to support Mr.Abramoff's Indian casino clients by attacking competing casinos.
While that scam may be the most venal exploitation of ''faith'' voters by Washington operatives, it's all too typical. This history repeats itself every political cycle: the conservative religious base turns out for its party and soon finds itself betrayed.
Above: Jack Abramhoff
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In Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions, Harry Shaw — writer, editor, lecturer, teacher, and word mavin — clearly and compactly distinguishes venal from venial and offers tips on how to remember each word's meaning:
These words look alike and sound somewhat alike but venal—————————————————————————————————
(VEE-nuhl, VEE-n-l) has a connotation of corruption. Venial (VEE-ni-uhl), a term of mild reproach, means "excusable," "pardonable." It may help to keep them straight by remembering that venal comes from a Latin term meaning "for sale" (venalis) and venial from Latin venia ("forgiveness").
Associate venal with penal and venial with genial. "This corrupt administration has entered into many venal agreements." "Not sending them a wedding present was my venial offense against bood manners."—Harry Shaw. Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions. New York: Washington Square Press. 1975.
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