Increasing Your Vocabulary: Usurious

Among the words that have a quite justified use in society today, usurious stands out. This is because far too often, certain individuals and businesses have usurious practices. It is the sign of the times, where so many people have set goals to acquire as much money as they possibly can.

So what does usurious mean?

The word is an adjective that is a reference to exceeding the bounds of reasonable moderation, particularly in the case of money and lending. In other words, if a person or business charges unusually high amounts for products or services, they are being usurious.

A good example is a ‘loan-shark’ who may charge 100% interest on a loan, compounded daily. The only reason they do this is to make money. The practice is illegal in many places, but that doesn’t stop it from happening.

A loan-shark is only one extreme example, but there are many more. In areas where there is a housing shortage, many landlords may charge usurious prices for rentals, for example. This is quite common in very populated areas.

Convenience stores in the United States that stay open 24 hours a day also commonly charge usurious rates for their products. They know that after other stores have closed for the night if people want the products, they’ll have little choice except to pay the sometimes 30% to 40% markup price.

Gas stations that are located well away from populated areas often charge substantially more for fuel than gas stations in towns. They have usurious prices. The gas station doesn’t pay more for the gasoline they sell, but the usurious prices increase their profit margin and they know that people won’t be able to buy gasoline for a cheaper price without traveling a substantial distance to do it. That can be tricky if the vehicle is almost out of gasoline.

Some doctors and lawyers have usurious rates for simple services that take them very little time or effort to render.

The list goes on. Incidentally, the word is pronounced “you-ZUR-ee-us”. It comes from the Latin word “usus”, which means “use”. The word has been in use since the early 1600’s.

Usurious is a term that has a solid basis in the world today when so many people desire to make money at the expense of others and are willing to charge ridiculously high prices to do it. Now you know that there is an actual word for this form of selfish behavior.