GRAFT = corruption involving public officers
First time today! It is rather curious to finally come across this word in English just when the dwelling on the mensalão case in Brazil has made even the most illiterate citizens conscious about the "dishonest use of political power or influence" so as to get "money or advantage", as we can learn from the Cambridge Dictionary.
I was not aware I missed, for active use, this term in English until I, moments ago, read it in The Economist's "Politics this week". The context: Slovenia's anti-corruption watchdog accused Janez Jansa, the prime minister, of graft...
Actually, several types of such acts fall into the category of graft. One of them involves only a single politician or a single public officer who takes hold of public funds. The word in Portuguese for such wrongdoing is peculato, whose sound seems awkward even for natives. But that has not the least prevented people from practicing the act...
