Pelf noun, money or wealth, especially if dishonestly acquired; lucre. Also a slang term for money.
Etymology: from the Old French pelfre (booty); related to the Latin pilāre (to despoil).
[Source]
I came across this word today in The Times in an article about a British supermarket starting a pawn broking service, or more specifically a gold exchange service. I hadn’t encountered it before and thought at first that it was a typo. The context is:
Most of the other alchemists promising to turn gold into cupro-nickel are doing so at a rate so miserly that even a richly embossed heirloom would barely provide a widow’s pelf.
From: The Times, 3rd January 2011
Guess that’s where “pilfer” comes from. Never heard “pelf” before, though.
What can a “window’s pelf” be?
windows is a typo – it should be widow’s (doh!)
It’s probably related to ‘pillage’ as well?
I’ve heard of ‘pelf’ before but have only encountered the word in older books and works of classic literature, I’m sure I first came across ‘pelf’ in Dante’s Inferno which I read when I was back in school in the late 80s.
The word ‘lucre’ would be a far more commonly heard word especially in the set phrase ‘filthy lucre’ with the adjective adding emphasis in the sense of ill-gotten gains.
In Welsh lucre (of the filthy variety) is expressed as the compound word ‘budrelw’ consisting of the words ‘budr’ (dirty, filth) and ‘elw’ (profit, gain) = budr+elw ‘filthy-profit’. It can also be turned in to a verb ‘budrelwa’ – to gain filthy lucre ie. profiteer.
I immediately think it must be related to “pilfer”. You “pilfer” pelf, that is the results of your pilfering is pelf.
Cheers,
Andrew