Bounty (reward)

A bounty (from bonte in Old French, and bonitas in Latin, meaning "good" or "goodness", dating from the early 18th century) is a sum of money given, often by a government, to a person or persons in return for a service or act. A person who makes a living by pursuing bounties is a bounty hunter.

Examples of bounties are the bounty system of New South Wales in Australia to encourage immigrants to come to the state, the bounty system to increase enlistment during the American Civil War, and in modern times the bounty offered by the United States for the capture of Saddam Hussein.