The article discusses meanings of the words related to the semantic field of ‘bribery’, which is now growing in the Russian language. Drawing from various lexicographical sources, the author focuses on lexical and phraseological units denoting such social vice as bribery. It is shown how the word family with the common root “âçÿòê-” is expanding; how the meanings of the lexical units in this field are transformed; and how this semantic field functions in the legal discourse. Comparative analysis of the colloquial usage of these words and their usage as terms in professional discourse reveals significant differences in the meanings of certain units. The author used the Russian National Corpus to analyze the collocations of the word «âçÿòêà» and to reconstruct the perception of this phenomenon in Russian society. Special attention is paid to the system of euphemistic nominations performing various pragmatic functions: euphemisms conceal the real nature of such actions; change the negative evaluation of this phenomenon into positive; and reduce the communicative discomfort. The article describes how condemnation of bribery is replaced by a more ambivalent attitude in contemporary publicistic writings.