Offered or gave money or favors to someone to persuade them to do something illegal or dishonest.
From Old French 'bribe' (a piece of bread), then 'briber' (to beg), finally evolving to mean 'to offer payment for corrupt purposes' in the 1500s. The shift happened because beggars became associated with unethical persuasion.
A bribe originally meant literally just a crust of bread—but when you think about it, paying someone to break their ethics is still a 'transaction' in the most basic sense, which is why ancient languages applied payment words to corruption.
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