different between corruption vs rotten

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French corruption, from Latin corrupti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k????p??n/
• Rhymes: -?p??n
• Hyphenation: cor?rup?tion

Noun

corruption (countable and uncountable, plural corruptions)

1. The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity
   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England

     It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, . . . to exite popular indignation against them.

   • 1834-1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.

     They abstained from some of the worst methods of corruption usual to their party in its earlier days.
2. The act of corrupting or making putrid, or state of being corrupt or putrid; decomposition or disorganization, in the process of putrefaction; putrefaction; deterioration.
3. The product of corruption; putrid matter.
   • 1821, Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer, volume 2, page 154:

     Think of wandering amid sepulchral ruins, of stumbling over the bones of the dead, of encountering what I cannot describe,—the horror of being among those who are neither the living or the dead;—those dark and shadowless things that sport themselves with the reliques of the dead, and feast and love amid corruption,—ghastly, mocking, and terrific.

4. The decomposition of biological matter.
5. The seeking of bribes.
6. (computing) The destruction of data by manipulation of parts of it, either by deliberate or accidental human action or by imperfections in storage or transmission media.
7. The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct.

   a corruption of style

   corruption in language

8. (linguistics) A debased or nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text, resulting from misunderstanding, transcription error, mishearing, etc.
9. Something originally good or pure that has turned evil or impure; a perversion.

Translations

Synonyms

• (economics): rent-seeking
• (act of corrupting or making putrid): adulteration, contamination, debasement, defilement, dirtying, soiling, tainting
• (state of being corrupt or putrid): decay, decomposition, deterioration, putrefaction, rotting
• (product of corruption; putrid matter): decay, putrescence, rot
• (act of impairing integrity, virtue or moral principle): depravity, wickedness, impurity, bribery
• (state of being corrupted or debased): debasement, depravity, evil, impurity, sinfulness, wickedness
• (act of changing for the worse): deterioration, worsening
• (act of being changed for the worse): destroying, ruining, spoiling
• (departure from what is pure or correct): deterioration, erosion
• (debased or nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text): bastardization

Derived terms

• corruption of blood

References

• “corruption” in the Collins English Dictionary
• corruption at OneLook Dictionary Search
• corruption in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Old French corruption, borrowed from Latin corrupti?, corrupti?nem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?.?yp.sj??/

Noun

corruption f (plural corruptions)

1. corruption (act of corrupting)
2. corruption (state of being corrupt)
3. corruption (putrefaction)
4. (figuratively) corruption (bribing)

Related terms

Further reading

• “corruption” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• croupiront

Old French

Alternative forms

• corrumpcion, corrumption, corrupcion, corruptiun

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin corrupti?, corrupti?nem.

Noun

corruption f (oblique plural corruptions, nominative singular corruption, nominative plural corruptions)

1. corruption (state of being corrupted)

Related terms

• corrompre

Descendants

• ? English: corruption
• French: corruption

English

Etymology

From Middle English roten, from Old Norse rotinn (“decayed, rotten”), past participle of an unrecorded verb related to Old Norse rotna (“to rot”) and Old English rotian (“to rot”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rut?n? (“to rot”). More at rot.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /???tn?/, [????n?]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???tn?/
• Rhymes: -?t?n

Adjective

rotten (comparative rottener or more rotten, superlative rottenest or most rotten)

1. Of perishable items, overridden with bacteria and other infectious agents.

   If you leave a bin unattended for a few weeks, the rubbish inside will turn rotten.

   • 1596-99?, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, scene iii:

     Antonio: Mark you this, Bassanio, / The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. / An evil soul producing holy witness / Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, / A goodly apple rotten at the heart. / O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

2. In a state of decay.

   The floors were damaged and the walls were rotten.

   His mouth stank and his teeth were rotten.

3. Cruel, mean or immoral.

   That man is a rotten father.

   This rotten policy will create more injustice in this country.

4. Bad or terrible.

   Why is the weather always rotten in this city?

   It was a rotten idea to take the boat out today.

   She has the flu and feels rotten.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which “rotten” is often applied: wood, food, egg, meat, fruit, tomato, apple, banana, milk, vegetable, stuff, tooth, smell, person, kid, bastard, scoundrel, weather.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

rotten (comparative more rotten, superlative most rotten)

1. To an extreme degree.

   That kid is spoilt rotten.

   The girls fancy him something rotten.

Anagrams

• Trento, torent

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?r?t?(n)/
• Rhymes: -?t?n

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch rotten, reformed from earlier roten, from Old Dutch *roton, from Proto-Germanic *rut?n?.

Verb

rotten

1. To rot, to go bad, to decay.

Inflection

Derived terms

• doorrotten
• verrotten
• wegrotten

Etymology 2

Noun

rotten

1. Plural form of rot

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?r?t?n/, [???t?n], [???tn?]
• Hyphenation: rot?ten

Etymology 1

From Middle High German roten, derived from rote (whence modern Rotte), from Old French rote, from Latin rupta.

Verb

rotten (weak, third-person singular present rottet, past tense rottete, past participle gerottet, auxiliary haben)

1. (obsolete) To form into a gang, to rout, to squad.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• zusammenrotten (remains common)

Etymology 2

From Middle High German roten, roden, from Proto-Germanic *rud?n?.

Verb

rotten (weak, third-person singular present rottet, past tense rottete, past participle gerottet, auxiliary haben)

1. (obsolete) Alternative form of roden (“to clear woods, to make arable”)

Conjugation

Derived terms

• ausrotten (remains common)

Etymology 3

From Middle Low German rotten, alteration (perhaps intensivation) of older r?ten, from Old Saxon rot?n, from Proto-Germanic *rut?n?.

Verb

rotten (weak, third-person singular present rottet, past tense rottete, past participle gerottet, auxiliary haben)

1. To rot, to decay.

Conjugation

Usage notes

• As a simplex chiefly with certain adverbs, like vor sich hin. More common in compounds.

Synonyms

• faulen
• verfaulen

Derived terms

• dahinrotten
• verrotten

Middle English

Verb

rotten

1. Alternative form of roten (“to rot”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• rotta f

Noun

rotten m

1. definite masculine singular of rotte: rat (rodent)

West Frisian

Noun

rotten

1. plural of rôt