Corruption
Etymology
From Latin “corrumpere,” “to destroy, spoil, ruin,” from “com-” (intensive) + “rumpere,” “to break.” The original image is of something rotting or breaking apart — spoiled food, a decaying body. Applied to institutions, corruption is literally their rotting from within.
noun · /kuh-RUP-shun/
The use of entrusted power for private gain, and more broadly the decay of an institution from its proper purpose.
What it names
Use it when public office or a trusted role is quietly turned to serve the office-holder rather than those it exists to serve.
Example
Contracts kept going to the minister’s cousin — textbook corruption dressed up as procurement.
Related idea
Corruption abuses power for private benefit through channels meant to serve the public; nepotism and cronyism are two of its flavors, favoring kin and friends respectively. It differs from ordinary theft in that the wrong lies in the betrayal of a trust, not merely the taking.
noun · /kuh-RUP-shun/
The alteration or degrading of data or a text into an unusable or erroneous form.
What it names
the spoiling of data or a text
Example
A power failure caused file corruption; scribes introduced corruptions into the manuscript.
Related idea
The same ‘spoiling’ as the moral sense, applied to information rather than institutions. Compare integrity.