Revised as of
8 Jan 2023
This word confusion venal and venial cropped up in a story and made me wonder — was I defining them properly in my mind?
Venal is about corruption and bribery. Open to bribery, bribable, corruption, and in my mind, it’s worse than venial.
Local customs officials are notoriously venal, and smuggling thrives.
Sure, some of those venal actions may be venial, minor sins. But too much corruption hurts too many people. More of a mortal sin.
In our high school, smoking cigarettes was a venial sin.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Venal | Venial |
|---|---|
Exchanging is under the CC0 license, via PxFuel. — Could be a tip. But a fat wad of $50 bills look more like a venal bribe. |
School Exam Cheating is Santeri Viinamäki‘s own work and is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — In the grand scheme of things, cheating is a venial sin. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Adjective | Adjective |
Showing or motivated by susceptibility to bribery
Willing to sell one’s influence, especially in return for a bribe
Able to be purchased, as by a bribe Associated with or characterized by bribery |
[Christian theology] Denoting a sin that is not regarded as depriving the soul of divine grace
|
| Examples: | |
| Their generosity had been at least partly venal.
Why should these venal politicians care how they are rated? He’s a venal judge and on the take for years. The president’s venal pardons of his friends and contributors are unpardonable. The Republican candidate is portrayed as venal, cynical, and arrogant. It was a venal arrangement between the police and the drug dealers. “Despicable trickery at elections; under-handed tamperings with public officers; cowardly attacks upon opponents, with scurrilous newspapers for shields, and hired pens for daggers; shameful trucklings to mercenary knaves, whose claim to be considered, is, that every day and week they sow new crops of ruin with their venal types” (Dickens). |
We cannot prevent ourselves sometimes from dreaming of performing venial if not mortal sins.
Everything I’ve disclosed up to now can be seen as venial. Fortunately, she had only committed a venial sin and not a mortal one. If that’s not a mortal sin, it’s got to be up there on the venial meter. Confession had always rested on a clear distinction between mortal and venial sins. He openly admits to some ignoble if venial attitudes. Even quite venial offenders were sentenced to death. For a start, it’s hard to imagine a more venial form of corruption than merely speeding along someone’s visa application. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: nonvenal, unvenal Adverb: nonvenally, venally Noun: venality |
Adverb: venially Noun: veniality |
| History of the Word: | |
| Mid-17th century, in the sense available for purchase, referring to merchandise or a favor, and is from the Latin venalis, from venum meaning thing for sale. | Middle English via the Old French from the late Latin venialis, from venia meaning forgiveness. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Venal versus Venial
Apple Dictionary.com: venal, venial
Dickens, Charles. American Notes for General Circulation. chap. 8, <https://dickens.thefreelibrary.com/American-Notes-for-General-Circulation/8-1#venal>. Project Gutenberg. <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/675/675-h/675-h.htm>.
Dictionary.com: venal
Lexico.com: venial
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Alderson Federal Prison by Aaron Bauer is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.
This image, which was originally posted to Flickr, was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 25 January 2013, 20:02 by Steffaville. On that date, it was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the license indicated.
