Etymologically
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accusation

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Pronunciation

  • /ˌæk.jʊˈzeɪ.ʃ(ə)n/[1]

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

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