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 mendicatur, and still keeps up the idea of the matter whereof bribes anciently consisted. Hence also the Spaniards use bribar and brivar for begging; and brivio brioveneria, and briovismo, for beggary. In middle-age writers, a bribe given a judge is called quato litis, and the receiver, campi participet, or campi particeps; because the spoils of the field i.e. the profits of the cause, were thus shared with the giver.