accusation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English accusacioun,^[2][3] partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman accusacioun, also accusaciun, and accusacion, and partly borrowed directly from their source, Latin accūsātiō (“act of accusing; formal indictment”).^[4][2] The French word is recorded in Old French as acusacion from before 1275.^[4] The Latin noun is formed on the past participle stem of accūsō (“to call to account, blame, charge with a crime”) with the suffix -iō,^[4][3][5] and the verb itself comes from ad (“to, with regard to”) and causa (“cause; lawsuit”).^[2] Spanish acusación and Italian accusazione are recorded in the 13th century.^[4] The English word is related to accuse and cause.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An act of accusing; a charge of wrongdoing: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[4] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century,^[2] and Dictionary.com to 1350–1400.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The mass sense, the action of accusing, blame or reproach, is recorded from about 1400, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius,^[4] and Chaucer uses the word twice in all.^[7] The sense "that which is charged against someone" is dated by Etymonline to the early 15th century.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave two senses, the act of accusing and the charge brought by an accuser, quoting Milton's Paradise Lost for the first.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1275 – Old French acusacion.^[4]
• before 1382 – an act of accusing; a charge of wrongdoing (Wycliffite Bible).^[4]
• c. 1400 – the action of accusing; blame, reproach (Chaucer's Boece).^[4]
• early 15th century – that which is charged against someone.^[2]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as the act of accusing and the charge brought.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A claim that someone has done something wrong or illegal: She denied every accusation made against her.^[9][10][3]
2. The act of accusing, or the state of being accused: a look of silent accusation.^[10][3][5]
3. A formal charge brought against a person, stating the crime they are said to have committed; an indictment.^[9][5]

Word family

• counteraccusation
• preaccusation
• reaccusation

Related words

• accuse
• accusative
• accusatory
• cause
• excuse

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin