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bribe: bribe: [14] The origin of bribe is obscure, and its semantic history is particularly involved. The word first turns up in Old French, as a noun meaning ‘piece of bread, especially one given to a beggar’. From this, the progression of senses seems to have been to a more general ‘alms’; then to the ‘practice of living on alms’; then, pejoratively, to simple ‘begging’. From there it was a short step to ‘stealing’, and that was the meaning the verb had when first recorded in English.

The shift to the current application to financial corruption occurred in the 16th century, originally, it seems, in the context of judges and others in authority who exacted, or ‘stole’, money in exchange for favours such as lenient sentences.
basket case (n.): 1919, American English, originally a reference to rumors of quadriplegics as a result of catastrophic wounds suffered in World War I (the military vehemently denied there were any such in its hospitals), from basket (n.) + case (n.2). Probably literal, i.e., stuck in a basket, but basket had colloquial connotations of poverty (begging) and helplessness long before this. Figurative sense of "person emotionally unable to cope" is from 1921.
Beguine (n.): late 15c., from French béguine (13c.), Medieval Latin beguina, a member of a women's spiritual order said to have been founded c.1180 in Liege in the Low Countries. They are said to take their name from the surname of Lambert le Bègue "Lambert the Stammerer," a Liege priest who was instrumental in their founding, and it's likely the word was pejorative at first.

The order generally preserved its reputation, though it quickly drew imposters who did not; nonetheless it eventually was condemned as heretical. A male order, called Beghards founded communities by the 1220s in imitation of them, but they soon degenerated (compare Old French beguin "(male) Beguin," also "hypocrite") and wandered begging in the guise of religion; they likely were the source of the words beg and beggar, though there is disagreement over whether Beghard produced Middle Dutch beggaert "mendicant" or was produced by it.

Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" (1935) refers to a kind of popular dance of West Indian origin, from French colloquial béguin "an infatuation, boyfriend, girlfriend," earlier "child's bonnet," and before that "nun's headdress" (14c.), from Middle Dutch beggaert, ultimately the same word.
bribe (v.): late 14c., "pilfer, steal," also "practice extortion," from Old French briber "go begging," from bribe (see bribe (n.)). Related: Bribed; bribing.
cadge (v.): "to beg" (1812), "to get by begging" (1848), of uncertain origin, perhaps a back-formation from cadger "itinerant dealer with a pack-horse," mid-15c., which is perhaps from early 14c. cadge "to fasten, to tie," which is of unknown origin.
fakir (n.): c. 1600, from Arabic faqir "a poor man," from faqura "he was poor." Term for Muslim holy man who lived by begging, supposedly from a saying of Muhammad's, el fakr fakhri ("poverty is my pride"). Misapplied in 19c. English (possibly under influence of faker) to Hindu ascetics. Arabic plural form fuqara may have led to variant early English forms such as fuckeire (1630s).
mendicancy (n.): "state or condition of beggary," 1790, from mendicant + -cy. Also in this sense was mendicity (c. 1400), from Old French mendicité "begging," from Latin mendicitatem (nominative mendicitas) "beggary, mendicity."
panhandle (n.): "something resembling the handle of a pan," 1851, from pan (n.) + handle (n.). Especially in reference to geography, originally American English, from 1856, in reference to Virginia (now West Virginia; Florida, Texas, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Alaska also have them). Meaning "an act of begging" is attested from 1849, perhaps from notion of arm stuck out like a panhandle, or of one who handles a (beggar's) pan.
panhandle (v.): "to beg," 1888, from panhandle (n.) in the begging sense. Related: Panhandled; panhandling.
panhandler (n.): "one who begs," 1893, from panhandle (n.) in begging sense. Related: Panhandled; panhandler; panhandling.
rogue (n.): 1560s, "idle vagrant," perhaps a shortened form of roger (with a hard -g-), thieves' slang for a begging vagabond who pretends to be a poor scholar from Oxford or Cambridge, which is perhaps an agent noun in English from Latin rogare "to ask." Another theory [Klein] traces it to Celtic (compare Breton rog "haughty"); OED says, "There is no evidence of connexion with F. rogue 'arrogant.' "

In playful or affectionate use, "one who is mischievous," 1590s. Meaning "large wild beast living apart from the herd" is from 1859, originally of elephants. Meaning "something uncontrolled or undisciplined" is from 1964. Also common in 17c. as a verb. Rogue's gallery "police collection of mug shots" is attested from 1859.
schnorrer (n.): 1892, from Yiddish, "beggar," from German slang schnurrer, from schnurren "to go begging" (slang), perhaps ultimately imitative of the sound of pleading or whining (compare sneer, snorkel, snarl).
supple (adj.): c. 1300, "soft, tender," from Old French souple, sople "pliant, flexible; humble, submissive" (12c.), from Gallo-Roman *supples, from Latin supplex "submissive, humbly begging, beseeching, kneeling in entreaty," literally "bending, kneeling down," perhaps an altered form of *supplacos "humbly pleading, appeasing," from sub "under" + placare "appease" (see placate). Meaning "pliant" is from late 14c.; figurative sense of "artfully obsequious, capable of adapting oneself to the wishes and opinions of others" is from c. 1600. Supple-chapped (c. 1600) was used of a flatterer. Related: Suppleness.
tap (v.2): "to supply with a tap," late Old English tæppian, from source of tap (n.1); compare German zapfen "to tap." Meaning "to draw liquor with a tap" is from mid-15c. Extended sense "make use of" is first recorded 1570s. Meaning "listen in secretly" (1869), originally was with reference to telegraph wires. Tapped out "broke" is 1940s slang, perhaps from the notion of having tapped all one's acquaintances for loans already (compare British slang on the tap "begging, making requests for loans," 1932).
vagrancy (n.): "life of idle begging," 1706, from vagrant + -cy. Earlier in a figurative sense, "mental wandering" (1640s). By late 18c. used in law as a catch-all for miscellaneous petty offenses against public order.
mump (3): "To beg, go about begging; to sponge upon", Mid 17th cent. Apparently from Dutch mompen to cheat, deceive, conceal, of uncertain origin; perhaps related to mompen to mumble, though the nature of the relationship is unclear.