BRIBE, a reward given to pervert the judgment. See the next article.
The word is French, bribe, which originally denotes a bit, fragment, or relic of meat taken off the table; on which footing, bribe imports as much as panis mendicatus, and still keeps up the idea of the matter whereof bribes anciently consisted. Hence also the Spaniards use brivar and brivar for begging; and briva, brivonaria, and brivonismo, for beggary. In middle age writers, a bribe given a judge is called quato liti, and the receiver, campi particeps, or cambi particeps; because the spoils of the field, i. e. the profits of the cause, were thus shared with the giver.