the.com/usury
Charging interest so steep the loan becomes the crime and the lender the victim's new landlord.
means The practice of lending money at exorbitant or illegally high interest rates.
from From Latin 'usura,' meaning 'use' or 'enjoyment' (of money lent) — from 'uti,' to use. The word originally just meant any interest charged at all; medieval Christian and Islamic law banned the practice outright, treating profit from pure lending as sinful. As attitudes shifted and modest interest became acceptable commerce, 'usury' narrowed to mean only the excessive, exploitative kind — the word staying put while the moral line it marked moved.
- old world ban
- Catholic church once called it a mortal sin
- etymology
- from Latin usura, meaning payment for use
- modern form
- rebranded as payday loans and credit card APRs
- dante's hell
- usurers got their own circle, same as violence