- 1貪贓的、可以用錢收買的、（官員）受賄的（正式用語，比「貪污」更書面）
Venal describes a person — usually someone with power, like an official, a judge, a police officer, a politician — who can be bought. A venal official will bend a rule, lose a document, or give you the contract if the money is right. You can also call the thing itself venal: a venal government, venal practices, a venal system where nothing moves without a payment. The heart of the word is that the power is for sale. It is formal and , the language of newspapers, history books and serious reports rather than conversation; in ordinary speech people just say 'corrupt' or 'he takes bribes'. It is a strong accusation, so writers use it carefully. There is a second, gentler use, mainly literary, meaning simply 'done for money rather than love or duty' — a venal marriage, venal reasons — without the crime. Adjective only; the noun is and the adverb is venally.
組成From Latin vēnālis, 'for sale', which comes from vēnum, 'a thing for sale'. So a venal person is, quite literally, a person who is on sale. Note that Latin has a separate word vēna meaning 'vein' — that one is a different word entirely and has nothing to do with this.
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
venaladj詞源 1/ˈviːnəl/
- 1
archaicrareVenous; pertaining to veins.
venaladj詞源 2/ˈviːnəl/
- 1
archaicFor sale; available for purchase.
- Because lips libertine and and venal had murmured such words to him, he believed but little in the candour of hers; […].
- 2
Of a position, privilege etc.: available for purchase rather than assigned on merit.
- Thus, regimental commands in the army were – as with the judiciary or the financial bureaucracy – venal posts, which were purchased, bequeathed and sold among the nobility.
- 3
Capable of being bought (of a person); willing to take bribes.
- 4
Corrupt, mercenary.
- Though there is a disposition in mankind, to declaim against the corruption and peculation of the present times, as being more venal than formerly; yet, if we look back to different periods, we shall find statesmen and politicians, as selfish and corrupt, […] as those who have lately figured on the political stage.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。