mercenary

Definitions

Built on Latin mercēs ('pay, wages') — mercēnārius meant 'working for pay.' A mercenary soldier serves whoever pays, not a country or cause, which is exactly why the adjective generalized to 'driven only by money.' It is the root's coldest member: trade stripped down to pure cash.

Why It Means This

Mercenary sits right next to mercy in the family tree, yet feels its opposite. Both come from mercēs 'reward': mercy turned the reward into heaven's free grace, while mercenary kept it literal — you do the job, you get the pay, nothing more. That bluntness is why calling someone's motives 'mercenary' is an insult: it says they care about the money and nothing else.

Common Collocations

• 1.hire mercenaries雇佣雇佣兵
• 2.foreign mercenary外国雇佣兵
• 3.mercenary motives唯利是图的动机
• 4.purely mercenary纯粹为钱

Example Sentences

• 1.

  The warlord hired foreign mercenaries to crush the rebellion.

• 2.

  Critics accused the company of having purely mercenary motives.

• 3.

  He took the job for mercenary reasons, not out of any passion.

Easily Confused

mercenary vs merciless — they look alike but are unrelated in sense. mercenary is about money (a mercenary works for pay); merciless is about cruelty (a merciless attack shows no pity). A mercenary is greedy, not necessarily cruel; a merciless person is harsh, not necessarily greedy.