pelf
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɛlf/
rhymes: -ɛlf
Forms: form: pelfs
Etymology: From Late Middle English pelf, pelfe (“stolen goods, booty, spoil; forfeited property; money, riches; property; valuable object”), possibly from Anglo-Norman pelf (a variant of pelfre (“booty, loot”)) and Old French peufre (“frippery; rubbish”); further etymology uncertain, possibly a metathesis of Old French felpe, ferpe, frepe (“a rag”). The English word is perhaps related to Late Latin pelfa, pelfra, pelfrum (“forfeited or stolen goods”), Middle French peuffe and French peufe, peuffe (“old clothes; rubbish”) (Normandy), and pilfer.
Senses: examples: text: Raph. Sirra Hammon Hammon, dost thou thinke a shooe-maker is so base, to be a bawd to his own wife for cõmodity! take thy gold, choake with it: were I not lame, I would make thee eate thy words.
Firke. A shoomaker sell his flesh and blood, oh indignitie!
Hodg. Sirra, take up your pelfe, and be packing.
ref: 1599 (first performance; published 1600), Thomas Dekker, “The Shomakers Holiday. Or The Gentle Craft. […]”, in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker […], volume I, London: John Pearson […], published 1873, →OCLC, Act V, scene ii, page 66:
text: For what greater folly can there be, or madneſſe, then to […] keepe backe from his wife and children, neither letting them, nor other friends uſe or enjoy that which is theirs by right, and which they much need perhaps; like a hog, or dog in the manger, he doth onely keep it, becauſe it ſhall doe no body elſe good, hurting himſelfe and others; and for a little momentary pelfe, damne his owne ſoule.
ref: 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Φιλαργυρία [Philarguría] Covetousnesse a Cause”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 3, subsection 12, page 115:
text: During his Office, Treaſon was no Crime. / The Sons of Belial had a Glorious Time: / For Shimei, though not prodigal of pelf, / Yet lov'd his wicked Neighbour as himſelf.
ref: 1681, [John Dryden], Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem. […], 3rd edition, London: […] J[acob] T[onson] and are to be sold by W. Davis […], published 1682, →OCLC, page 16:
text: The inscriptions on the walls are homilies from the Koran—actual 'sermons in stones'. The inlaid characters in diamond, and other precious stones, have been all abstracted away by the pelf-loving Jaut and Mahratta—leaving the walls defaced with the hollow marks of the chisel.
ref: 1869, Bholanauth Chunder, chapter VIII, in The Travels of a Hindoo to Various Parts of Bengal and Upper India. […], volume I, London: N[icholas] Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC, page 411:
text: But, sighing after his fancies and visionary pursuits, he rebelled and fled fifty miles away for refuge from the lace caps and powdered wigs of his priggish sitters, and resumed his quaint dreams and immeasurable phantasies, never more to forsake them for pelf and portraiture.
ref: 1906, Frederick Tatham, “Life of Blake”, in Archibald G[eorge] B[lomefield] Russell, editor, The Letters of William Blake […], London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, pages 28–29:
text: When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf, and the world makes you King for a day, / Then go to the mirror and look at yourself, and see what that guy has to say.
ref: 1934, Dale Wimbrow, The Guy in the Glass:
text: Some of the rich classmates were keeping their pelf to themselves.
ref: 1968 October, Nicholas von Hoffman, “The Class of ’43 is Puzzled”, in Robert Manning, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2020:
text: In advertising, show business, and journalism, people work themselves to the nub for glitz and glory more than for pelf.
ref: 1987 April 27, Ford S. Worthy, “You’re Probably Working Too Hard”, in Fortune, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 01 Jul 2021:
text: She writes about those she might have known first-hand: teenage girls cowering in bunkers … friends making promises they can never keep … rich folk fattened on wartime pelf, poor folk surviving by wit alone.
ref: 1997 July 20, Harriet P. Gross, “Author roots her stories in Vietnam War”, in The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Tex.: A. H. Belo Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC:
text: Every wised-up wit who mistakes knowingness for knowledge proclaims that Peter Mandelson is a gutless fixer; a master manipulator who will twist and dodge around the clock to keep the privileges of power and pelf. […] If only the idle stereotype were true.
ref: 2000 February 20, Nick Cohen, “Without prejudice: Who trusts Mandy?”, in The Observer, London: Guardian News & Media, archived from the original on 09 May 2014:
text: Houellebecq seems to be saying that French society, in the form of its politicians, its journalists, its academics and not least its novelists, will get exactly what it deserves – a state run by those who believe in something bigger and grander than the pelf and perquisites of their elevated positions.
ref: 2015 September 8, Alex Preston, “Submission by Michel Houellebecq review – satire that’s more subtle than it seems”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
synonyms: word: accession
word: acquirement
word: acquisition
word: acquist
word: attainment
word: gain
word: gaining
word: obtainment
word: boodle
word: booty
word: fang
word: gizzit
word: haul
word: hot property
word: loot
word: pelf
word: pickings
word: pillage
word: plunder
word: prigging
word: sack
word: spoil
word: spoils
word: swag
word: ackers
word: bees and honey
word: blunt
word: bones
word: brass
word: bread
word: bread and honey
word: Bugs Bunny
word: cake
word: cheddar
word: cheese
word: ching
word: clams
word: coin
word: cream
word: currency
word: dinero
word: dosh
word: dough
word: feds
word: fedi
word: finances
word: flizz
word: flow
word: funding
word: funds
word: gravy
word: gwop
word: gwolla
word: jack
word: legal tender
word: lolly
word: lovely jubbly
word: mazuma
word: means
word: money
word: moola
word: mozzarella
word: muck
word: oof
word: ooftish
word: paper
word: rhino
word: scratch
word: scrilla
word: shrapnel
word: simoleons
word: smackers
word: smackeroos
word: smackeroonies
word: spend
word: spondulicks
word: swag
word: wampum
word: wonga
word: yenom
glosses: Money, riches; gain, especially when dishonestly acquired; lucre, mammon.
examples: text: Now for women, in ſtead of laborious ſtudies, they have curious, needleworkes, Cut-workes, ſpinning, bone-lace, and many prettie deviſes of their owne making, to adorne their houſes, […] Which to her gueſts ſhe ſhews, with all her pelfe, / Thus far my maides, but this I did my ſelf.
ref: 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Exercise Rectified of Body and Minde”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 4, page 282:
synonyms: word: cultch
word: crap
word: debris
word: dreck
word: drek
word: garbage
word: junk
word: litter
word: pelf
word: piece of crap
word: piece of garbage
word: piece of shit
word: pile of crap
word: pile of shit
word: piece of trash
word: rubbish
word: refuse
word: roughage
word: service item
word: shit
word: stuff
word: trash
word: waste
glosses: Rubbish, trash; specifically (British, dialectal) refuse from plants.
qualifier: Southwest England
glosses: Dust; fluff.
synonyms: word: absolute zero
word: asswipe
word: badling
word: blatherskite
word: bugger
word: carrion
word: cipher
word: cockstain
word: crumb
word: custron
word: dandiprat
word: doink
word: fellow
word: fritlag
word: geek
word: good-for-naught
word: good-for-nothing
word: hoon
word: lidderon
word: losel
word: loser
word: louse
word: maggot
word: nonce
word: nowmun
word: ne'er-do-well
word: no-good
word: no-mark
word: nonentity
word: pelf
word: pig dog
word: pile of shit
word: pissant
word: punk
word: puny
word: quat
word: ramp
word: rinky-dink
word: roly-poly
word: scullion
word: slubberdegullion
word: sparrow-fart
word: streak of piss
word: toerag
word: truant
word: twerp
word: wankstain
word: waste of space
word: underperson
word: unworthy
antonyms: word: worthless person
word: little guy
word: nonentity
word: peasant
word: peon
word: pleb
word: plebe
word: prole
word: shrimp
glosses: A contemptible or useless person.
Derived terms: word: pelfish
word: pelfray
word: pelfry
Related terms: word: pilfer