Word of the Day for Sunday, September 2, 2012

vigorish \VIG-er-ish\, noun:

1. Interest paid to a moneylender, especially a usurer.
2. A charge paid on a bet, as to a bookie.

But a washed and polished white bread car driven by a single white man in this neighborhood could mean a cop, or worse yet, a Wise Guy hit man looking for somebody who was behind in their vigorish.
-- Alan Souter, "Enclave"

We are speaking in a range of one thousand dollars a week vigorish.
-- Don DeLillo, "Libra"

Vigorish is an Americanism that arose in the 1910s. It is most likely an adaptation of the Yiddish slang výigrysh from the Russian word meaning "profit."

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