Venal vs Vernal - What's the difference?
venal | vernal |
(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:
Pertaining to spring.
Young; fresh. (rfex)
Belonging to youth.
* Thomson
* Keble
As an adjective venal
is available for a price; venal.As a proper noun vernal is
a city in utah.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
* *vernal
English
Alternative forms
* vernall “vernal, a.'' (and ''n.'')” listed in the ''Oxford English Dictionary , second edition (1989)
Adjective
(en adjective)- when after the long vernal day of life
- And seems it hard thy vernal' years / Few ' vernal joys can show?