blood moneyn.
/ˈblʌd ˌmʌni/, U.S. /ˈbləd ˌməni/ 1.
a. A financial reward for causing harm to someone; esp. a payment made for killing a person, or for providing (false) evidence leading to a person's conviction and execution.
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the world > action or operation > behaviour > reciprocal treatment or return of an action > reward or a reward > [noun] > sum offered for capture or death of person
blood money1535
price1679
bounty1764
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Matt. xxvii. 6 The hye prestes toke the syluer pens [paid to Judas Iscariot for betraying Christ], and sayde: It is not laufull to put them in to the Gods chest for it is bloudmoney.
1751 Proc. Oyer & Terminer for Surry 15–22 Aug. 26/2 These men are thief-takers, they swear for what they call blood-money.
1787 London Chron. 3 July 9/2 Those who threw an officer into the sea, were to have ten dollars for what was termed blood-money.
1819 W. Cobbett Year's Resid. U.S.A. ii. xiv. 283 Spies and blood-money bands.
1886 R. L. Stevenson Kidnapped xxv. 252 I could read..the amount of the blood money that had been set upon my life.
1972 Black Belt Aug. 36/1 For a few pieces of gold you hunt and kill your fellow samurai?.. Come and earn your bloodmoney!
1995 Amer. Jnl. Legal Hist. 39 48 Private prosecutors..accepted blood money to secure a guilty verdict regardless of the evidence.
b. In extended use: money gained at the expense of others, or in a manner regarded as dishonest or disreputable; ill-gotten gains; spec. profit made from products considered harmful or dangerous. O.E.D. Suppl. (1933) had placed quot. 1893 in a separate Printing sense. However, it appears to be merely a specific application of this extended use.
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society > trade and finance > money > funds or pecuniary resources > [noun] > created by unscrupulous or incomprehensible means
blood money1819
black money1939
funny money1969
1819 Gentleman's Mag. 89 (Suppl.) i. 605/1 The Sheriffs of every city and county are..gentlemen of honour and independent fortune, and it is presumed, must shudder at the idea of receiving what may very truly be deemed ‘Blood Money’.
1888 A. Gustafson Drink Probl. iv. 70 Does not the Government..continue to take the drink revenues, the worst blood-money ever accepted by prestige and power in return for its immoral sanction?
1893 I. K. Funk et al. Standard Dict. Eng. Lang. I Blood-money,..2. [Printers' Slang.] A bonus paid to other workmen in a newspaper office for the privilege of setting fat copy.
1915 Fatherland (N.Y.) 15 Sept. 102/1 It [sc. the arms industry] is an immoral trade, and profits from it are nothing but blood money.
1968 Sunday Post-Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) 7 Jan. 14/8 The tax paid by beer manufacturers carries much power. But why are parents allowing blood money to outweigh their power at the polls?
1999 T. P. Doherty Pre-code Hollywood Sex iv. 87 Tom refuses the ‘blood money’ he has earned from Max's invention.
2007 Canberra Times (Nexis) 17 Jan. a1 Most people would be very unhappy to know that their superannuation funds are making blood money via this industry [sc. the tobacco industry].
2. Chiefly Anthropology. Money paid in reparation for a killing; esp. compensation paid to the deceased person's next of kin. Cf. wergild n.In later use historical with reference to European societies.
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society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > compensation > [noun] > for man's life
man-botea1000
bloodwitelOE
manworthlOE
wergilda1214
kinbootc1425
eric1587
were1607
blood-fine1818
blood money1826
1826 J. Anderson Mission East Coast Sumatra 316 The crime of murder is punishable by death, unless the offender has money enough to pay the fine, commutation, or blood money..which expiates the offence.
1862 H. Marryat One Year in Sweden I. 160 [She] received a thousand marks of pure silver as blood-money for the massacre of her husband and her two sons.
1880 H. H. Howorth Hist. Mongols II. 932 He [sc. the Khan] was afraid he would be asked for he kun or blood money for the life of Prince Bekovitch and of the Russians who had died in captivity.
1887 H. C. Lea Hist. Inquisition Middle Ages III. vi. 409 The Ripuarian code only treats murder by sorcery like any other homicide, to be compounded for by the ordinary wer-gild, or blood-money.
1932 Jnl. Amer. Inst. Criminal Law & Criminology 23 169 It is desirable to know the distribution of the practice of compounding for murder by payments of blood money.
1974 Jrnl. Afr. Law 18 104 (title) The award of blood money in East African manslaughter cases.
1987 Jrnl. Palestine Stud. 16 36 Since his kin were unable to pay the blood-money, Ahmad was imprisoned [for a premediatated murder].
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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