Mercenary Meaning
/ˈmɜː.sə.nə.ɹi/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounOne motivated by gain, especially monetary.
nounA person employed to fight in an armed conflict who is not a member of the state or military group for which they are fighting and whose primary motivation is private gain.
Sentence Examples
He is very mercenary.
So you're a mercenary, right?
As a mercenary, did you participate in torture sessions?
CEFR Practice Quiz
The wealthy general hired a ____ to fight in the war for money.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The king hired a group of ____ soldiers to help defend the castle after his own army was defeated.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English mercenarye (“someone paid to work, hireling”), from Latin mercēnārius (“hired for money”), from mercēs (“reward, wages, price”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"J. Argyrofylus, a mercenary Greek, who came to teach school in Italy, after the sacking of Constantinople by the Turks, used to maintain that Cicero understood neither Philosophy nor Greek"
— 1753, Alexander Pope, edited by William Warburton, The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: Satires, &c, page 22:
"Such a man emphatically deserves the name of fortune-hunter—a wretch as detestable in society, as destructive of domestic happiness! And if, when marriages are consummated on such plans, there be afterwards between the parties the least appearance of regard, and the common forms of decorum, it is more than can reasonably be expected, and infinitely more than such mercenaries deserve."
— 1811, William Giles, The guide to domestic happiness, 9th edition:
"HOSPITAL NUNS./ Louis XVI. wishing to improve the state of the hospitals in France, sent a member of the Academy of Sciences to England, to enquire into the manner in which such establishments were conducted there. The commissioner praised them; but remarked, that two things were wanting; the zeal of the French parochial clergy, and the charity of the hospital nuns. "We have found, by sorrowful experience," said M. Portalis, that mercenaries, without any motive of feeling to attach them constantly to their duty, can never supply the place of persons animated by a spirit of religion,"
— 1826, Sholto and Reuben Percy, Brothers of the Benedictine Monastery, Mont Benger, Title The Percy Anecdotes: Original and Select, volume 1:
"In the higher ranks of life especially, it is, unhappily, a very common practice to commit to hired mercenaries, that important duty which nature at once commands and enables the mother to perform; that of suckling her infant."
— 1830, The Female's Encyclopaedia of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, page 404:
"For that is the characteristic of a mercenary, who acts through interest, rather than of an affectionate child who acts through love. There is a great difference, say they, between the service of a slave, the service of a mercenary or hireling, and the service of a child."
— 1831, James Lanigan (bp. of Ossory.), Catechetical Conference on the Holy Eucharist, page 134:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The wealthy general hired a ____ to fight in the war for money.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The king hired a group of ____ soldiers to help defend the castle after his own army was defeated.