corruption

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from French corruption, from Latin corruptiō, equivalent to corrupt + -ion.

1. The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity.

   “It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, […] to exite popular indignation against them.”

   “They abstained from some of the worst methods of corruption usual to their party in its earlier days.”

2. The act of corrupting or making putrid, or state of being corrupt or putrid; decomposition or disorganization, in the process of putrefaction; putrefaction; deterioration.

   “The inducing and accelerating of putrefaction is a subject of very universal inquiry; for corruption is a reciprocal to generation.”

3. The product of corruption; putrid matter.

   “Think of wandering amid sepulchral ruins, of stumbling over the bones of the dead, of encountering what I cannot describe,—the horror of being among those who are neither the living or the dead;—those dark and shadowless things that sport themselves with the reliques of the dead, and feast and love amid corruption,—ghastly, mocking, and terrific.”

4. The decomposition of biological matter.
5. Unethical administrative or executive practices (in government or business), including bribery (offering or receiving bribes), conflicts of interest, nepotism, embezzlement, and so on.
6. The destruction of data by manipulation of parts of it, either by deliberate or accidental human action or by imperfections in storage or transmission media.

   “The idea of having a time lag is to allow for situations when a corruption of some type affects the source server. If a corruption occurs, you do not want it to replicate to the copy of the database, so the time lag gives administrators the opportunity to recognize that a problem exists and then to have the ability to switch from the database copy if the corruption is so bad that it renders the original database unusable.”

7. The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct.

   “a corruption of style”

   “corruption of innocence”

8. A nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text, especially when resulting from misunderstanding, transcription error, or mishearing. (See a usage note about this sense.)

   “The affix ty, like té, Fr., ta, It., dad, Sp., is a corruption of the Latin affix tas, tat, and Greek tes; as bounty, bonté, Fr., bonta, It., bondad, Sp., bonitas from bonus, good; vanity, vanité, Fr., vanita, It., vanidad, Sp, vanitas from vanus, vain.”

   “The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old Quatre Face, as the house is four-sided, agreeing with the cardinal points of the compass.”

9. Something originally good or pure that has turned evil or impure; a perversion.

   “God creates and produces them, but it is according to the Laws of this Species of Beings who were made to propagate one another, so that in this Production earthly Parents are the Instruments. And how far they may be the Instruments in conveying a Corruption or Pravity, is what we cannot distinctly explain; but to make this alone a Rason for denying it, would argue great Rashness and want of Reflection.”

   “Far be it from me, however, to attribute the success to my exertions: I know very well that the whole success depends on the corruption and weakness of that system which I attack; for all that is requisite in this siege, is to tell the truth: let the truth be told, without concealment, and without fear of giving offence, and against such warfare the Church of England has no sort of chance: her corruptions and her abuses are so monstrous, that they need be only shewn to he hated; the only difficulty is to find persons who have the courage to withdraw the veil from the abominations that stand in the holy place.”