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tangento

bribe

noun tan-JEN-toh Rare
People & Society Crime

Also means

kickback

Usage Note

Tangento (also tangente in its more standard form) is Italian slang for an illicit payment or bribe, especially to public officials. The word entered common use during the Mani Pulite ('clean hands') anti-corruption investigations of the 1990s. The related noun tangentopoli ('bribesville') became a byword for systematic political corruption in that era.

Examples

"L'imprenditore pagò il tangento al funzionario."

Natural Translation

The entrepreneur paid the bribe to the official.

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