blood money
1
7.6
- noun
:
recompensa
- The bounty hunter thought of the blood money as a necessary evil in his line of work.
Examples
-
But my people are different from yours, and I am responsible for them. "And blood money?"
Fiction book (1990) -
The detective received a significant amount of blood money for leading the police to the murder suspect.
-
After her testimony helped convict the killer, she was offered blood money as a reward for her bravery.
Synonyms
147
5.5
A payment given for doing something such as catching a criminal
47
8.2
Money offered for catching a criminal
1
7.7
A sum of money offered to catch or kill a person wanted by the police
Surface Forms
Morphology
blood + money
The components 'blood' (associated with violence or death) and 'money' (payment) give a learner a general idea that this refers to payment connected with bloodshed, so the broad concept is inferable. However, the exact sense (payment for committing a murder, or culturally specific compensation to victims' families) and pragmatic nuance are metaphorical and culturally variable, so the meaning is not fully predictable from the words alone.
Etymology
Blood money may come from the practice of offering money to anyone who gave information about a murder so the killer could be caught. Because the payment was tied to a victim's blood, the term came to mean 'money paid as a reward for information leading to the capture or conviction of a murderer'.