Glossary entry
Shylock
SHY-lok
Definition
SHY-lok
A loan shark, and by extension the business of lending at interest rates that are enforced rather than negotiated. The weekly interest payment is the vig.
“He borrowed three thousand from a shylock in the union hall and was paying six hundred a week by Christmas.”
The name comes from the moneylender in The Merchant of Venice and had passed into general American slang well before organised crime adopted it.
Shylocking suited the business perfectly: it required only cash and a reputation, the customers could not go to the police, and a borrower who fell far enough behind could be made to hand over a share of a legitimate business instead. A great many restaurants and construction firms changed hands that way.