accuser

Etymology

The revised OED takes it as formed from English accuse + -er,^[2] recorded later than the separate Middle English noun accusour, which it derives from Anglo-Norman accusour, from Latin accūsātor.^[2] Anglo-Norman also had the forms accuser and accusere from the end of the 13th century or earlier.^[2] Merriam-Webster and Etymonline do not separate the English forms: Merriam-Webster gives acusere beside accusour, both from the Anglo-Norman noun,^[3] and Etymonline passes through Old French accusor to the Latin agent noun.^[4] That noun is from the past-participle stem of accūsō (“to call to account, make complaint against”),^[4] and Etymonline explains the verb from the phrase ad causa, with ad (“with regard to”) and causa (“a cause; a lawsuit”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who accuses: about 1350 as accusour, in an English version of the Apocalypse of Saint John,^[2] and before 1382 as accuser, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-14th century,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1300–50.^[5] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the third quarter of the 12th century, for someone who makes a charge of wrongdoing, and also for a slanderer.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer uses accusour sixteen times,^[7] and Skeat's glossary also gives him the sense of a revealer, in Troilus.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined an accuser as one who brings a charge against another, and quoted Ayliffe on those barred by law from doing so, among them women, pupils and infants, and the very poor.^[9] The word has kept both its general sense, a person who blames or criticizes, and the formal one of a plaintiff or prosecutor.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – the form accusour, one who accuses.^[2][4]
• before 1382 – the form accuser.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who accuses someone of a fault or wrong; one who blames: She finally faced her accuser in court.^[3][2]
2. (law) A person who formally charges another with a crime; a plaintiff or prosecutor.^[3][2]

Word family

• self-accuser

Related words

• accuse
• accusation
• accusator
• accusatory
• cause

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
8. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.