Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Hi all,

Just saw his sentence in the recent TIME magazine article on corruption in Russia: "Shifrin refused to ante up, and the tax office eventually dropped its case". The context is a small business that sells take-out soup, and that was being harrassed by the tax officials for a payoff of $1000 on grounds of some alleged violation of retailing regulations.

I have heard "to ante up" in the context of bidding at a card game, or by analogy to "up the ante" or raise the stakes; I had not heard it used just for making any payment. Is the original Latin meaning of "ante" (before) not the reason why this verb or noun was used to mean a payment before (eg in cards, before you put your cards on the talbe) or in any case involves some sort of gamble? I suppose paying off the corrupt taxman would have been a gamble,in a sense, to get them to leave you alone, but I don't think that is what the writer had in mind.

Shorter OED says only "put up as an ante, bet, stake, pay up".

Thanks for any insights,
Monica