Venal vs Hireling - What's the difference?
venal | hireling | Synonyms |
(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:
(usually, pejorative) an employee who is hired, often to perform unpleasant tasks with little independence
* 1848: William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
(usually, pejorative) someone who does a job purely for money, rather than out of interest in the work itself
* 1605: Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning
As an adjective venal
is venous; pertaining to veins.As a noun hireling is
an employee who is hired, often to perform unpleasant tasks with little independence.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.
Synonyms
* (for sale) purchasable * (willing to take bribes) crookedAntonyms
* (willing to take bribes) straight, honest, uncorruptAnagrams
* *hireling
English
Noun
(en noun)- When my poor James was in the smallpox, did I allow any hireling to nurse him?
- ... it may be truly affirmed that no kind of men love business for itself but those that are learned; for other persons love it for profit, as a hireling that loves the work for the wages;