lucre

noun

Etymology: From Middle English lūcre, lucor, lucour, lucur (“gain in money, profit; money; wages; illicit gain; advantage, benefit”), from Old French lucre or Latin lucrum (“advantage, profit; love of gain, avarice”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- (“gain, profit”) + *-tlom (variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting tools or instruments)).

1. Money, riches, or wealth, especially when seen as having a corrupting effect or causing greed, or obtained in an underhanded manner.

   “A Biſhop then muſt be blameleſſe, the huſband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behauiour, giuen to hoſpitalitie, apt to teach; / Not giuen to wine, no ſtriker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not couetous; […]”

   “By-ends and Silver-Demas both agree; / One calls, the other runs, that he may be / A ſharer in his lucre; ſo theſe two / Take up in this World, and no further go.”