Grasping vs Venal - What's the difference?
grasping | venal | Synonyms |
Greedy, eager for wealth.
* 1990 , (Robert Fagles) (translator), The Iliad :
The act of one who grasps or covets.
* 2009 , Jed McKenna, Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment
(archaic) For sale; available for purchase.
Of a position, privilege etc.: available for purchase rather than assigned on merit.
* 2002 , , The Great Nation , Penguin 2003, p. 140:
Capable of being bought (of a person); willing to take bribes.
Corrupt, mercenary.
* 1785 , The Times , 9 Feb 1785, page 1, column C:
Grasping is a synonym of venal.
As adjectives the difference between grasping and venal
is that grasping is greedy, eager for wealth while venal is available for a price; venal.As a verb grasping
is .As a noun grasping
is the act of one who grasps or covets.grasping
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- Just how, Agamemnon, great field marshal . . . most grasping man alive, how can the generous Argives give you prizes now? I know of no troves of treasure, piled, lying idle, anywhere.
Derived terms
* graspingly * graspingnessSynonyms
* See alsoVerb
(head)Noun
(en noun)- These are my connections, my attachments. Maybe all I really am is the sum of all these connections, these fearful longings and graspings .
Anagrams
*venal
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl)Etymology 2
From (etyl) , compare vendAdjective
(en adjective)- Thus, regimental commands in the army were – as with the judiciary or the financial bureaucracy – venal posts, which were purchased, bequeathed and sold among the nobility.
- Though there is a disposition in mankind, to declaim against the corruption and peculation of the present times, as being more venal than formerly; yet, if we look back to different periods, we shall find statesmen and politicians, as selfish and corrupt, (...) as those who have lately figured on the political stage.
