Also 5–6 brybe. [Bribe sb. and vb., and brybour, appear together in Chaucer and his contemporaries: their previous history is obscure. OF. had bribe in sense of ‘piece of bread, frustum panis,’ esp. ‘a peece, lumpe, or cantill of bread giuen vnto a beggar’ (Cotgr.); the same senses occur with med.L. briba: see Du Cange. Cf. Walloon brib alms, Sp. briba mendicancy, It. birba vagabond’s trade; also OF. briber, brimber to beg (intr.), be a mendicant, Walloon briber, Sp. bribar to lead a vagabond life, be a strolling beggar, It. birbare ‘to play the sly knave’ (Florio); also OF. bribeur, brimbeur mendicant, strolling beggar, with Sp. bribon, It. birbone, birbante vagrant, vagabond, and the ME. bribour, BRIBER sense 1; also OF. briberie, brimberie, Rouchi briberie, Walloon bribreie mendicancy. The ulterior history is quite unknown; if the sense of OF. bribe is the original, the order of development would appear to have been ‘piece of bread,’ ‘alms,’ ‘living upon alms,’ ‘professional begging.’ Hence, app. from practical association, the English sense ‘to steal, plunder.’ The further history in English is also involved, but appears to be somewhat thus: in bribe sb. the early sense of ‘theft, plunder, spoil,’ appears to have been transferred to the ‘black mail’ or ‘baksheesh’ exacted by governors and judges who abused their positions, and thus to gifts received or given for corrupt purposes, whence the later sense of the vb. The transition is best seen in the agent-noun briber, where we have the series, ‘beggar,’ ‘vagabond,’ ‘thief,’ ‘robber,’ ‘extortioner,’ ‘exactor of black mail,’ and ‘receiver of baksheesh’ (the Baconian sense). The sudden and startling change from the Baconian ‘briber,’ who received douceurs, to the modern ‘briber’ who gives them, can be explained only by taking the latter as a separate derivative of the verb in its latest sense.]
† 1. A thing stolen or robbed; theft, robbery; spoil, plunder. Obs. (The Chaucer quotation is doubtful: if the sb. is right, it might perh. have the sense of ‘an alms,’ as in OF.)
c. 1386. Chaucer, Freres T., 78 (Harl. MS.). Feyning a cause for he wolde han a bribe [Petw. MS. wold haue a brybe; 5 texts read he wolde brybe].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 50. Brybery or brybe, manticulum.
1509. Barclay, Shyp. of Folys (1874), II. 85. Theyr howsys stuffed with brybes abhomyn[a]bly.
2. ‘A reward given to pervert the judgment or corrupt the conduct’ (J.).
a. The earlier sense probably regarded it as a consideration extorted, exacted, or taken by an official, a judge, etc.; i.e., as the act of the receiver: cf. BRIBER.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xl. 12. All brybes [1611 briberie] and vnrighteousnes shalbe put awaye, but faithfulnes and trueth shal endure for euer.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 1227. Buying and selling of iustice for bribes.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., IV. iii. 3. You haue condemn’d, and noted Lucius Pella For taking Bribes heere of the Sardians.
1611. Bible, 1 Sam. viii. 3. His sonnes … tooke bribes, and peruerted iudgement.
b. But it is now applied to a consideration voluntarily offered to corrupt a person and induce him to act in the interest of the giver, e.g., a consideration given to a voter to procure his vote.
1555. Bradforth in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. xlv. 130. Who they myght make their frend with brybes.
1570. Levins, Manip., 113. A Bribe, largitio.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. ix. 38. I … cannot make my heart consent to take A Bribe.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 340. His rise hath been his giving of large bribes.
1718. Pope, Iliad, I. 40. Prayers, and tears, and bribes shall plead in vain.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. 115. The infamous bribe with which Julian had purchased the empire.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, xi. 45. Duties … which belong to the judicial character, of rejecting bribes, hearing impartially, and deciding faithfully.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, IV. lvi. 218. Before long surely it will be accounted as base to give as to take a bribe.
† 3. (perh.) Rascally or execrable behavior; clamor. Cf. BRIBER 1 b, quot. a. 1400. Obs.
a. 1560. Rolland, Crt. Venus, IV. 306. Quhen all this brybe & boist is quite ouir blawin.
4. Comb., as bribe-broker, -brokerage, -monger; bribe-free, -worthy adjs.; bribe-service, a service done for a bribe. Also BRIBE-TAKER, -TAKING.
1789. Burke, Imp. W. Hastings, Wks. XIV. 236. Is it in the hands of Mr. Hastings’s wicked *bribe-brokers.
1632. Brome, Novella, I. ii. Wks. 1873, I. 116. Dos he appeare *bribe-free? Is he the only officer uncorrupted?
a. 1593. H. Smith, Wks. (1866–7), I. 87. He would never speak to usurers and *bribe-mongers but when they be upon their death-beds.
1788. Burke, Imp. W. Hastings, Wks. XIII. 396. I charge him with not having done that *bribe-service, which fidelity even in iniquity requires.
1731. Arbuthnot, Epit. Francis Chartres. Without *bribe-worthy service, he acquired, or more properly created, a ministerial estate.
1788. Burke, Imp. W. Hastings, Wks. XIII. 360. To secure them against bribes by taking from the power of bribe-worthy service.
