adulterer

Etymology

It is formed from English adulter + -er,^[2][3][4][5] from the obsolete verb meaning to commit adultery or to debase, which is from Middle French avoultrer, also adulterer, and its source Latin adulterō (“to commit adultery; to defile, corrupt”),^[2][4] formed from ad (“to”) and alter (“another”).^[2] The earliest form is Middle English avoutrer, from Old French avoutrier.^[6][4][3] Etymonline finds the shorter noun avouter from about 1300,^[4] from Anglo-Norman avoutere and Latin adulter (“adulterer”),^[2][7] and Klein traces the verb behind these forms to Vulgar Latin *abulterō, with a change of prefix.^[8] The French forms were regular developments, and in both languages they gave way to forms closer to the Latin;^[2][3] variants such as advowtrer made this easier.^[3][7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged treats the modern form as the Middle English word altered to conform to the Latin noun.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who commits adultery: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible, in the plural auoutereres, translating Latin adulteris.^[2][6] Dictionaries that date the Latinized spelling are later: Etymonline has the early 15th century, Merriam-Webster Unabridged about 1506, and Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English the 16th century.^[4][7][9][5]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English word was usually said of a man, though it could be used of either sex.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged keeps the lean towards men in "especially a man".^[7] A second sense, one who adulterates or corrupts something, is recorded from about 1430,^[2] after the verb's meaning of debasing a substance; the Shorter Oxford marks it as dead by the mid 17th century.^[3] The OED notes that the sense of adultery is now the usual one.^[2] From the 16th to the 18th century adulterer stood beside the synonym adulter, and it won, according to Hoad, because it fitted the series adulterate, adulteress, adulterous and adultery.^[9] Johnson (1755) defined it plainly as the person guilty of adultery.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1382 – a person who commits adultery, in the form auoutereres.^[2][6]
• c. 1430 – a person who adulterates or corrupts something.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person, especially a man, who commits adultery: The novel's hero is a charming adulterer.^{[7][2][11][12]}
2. (obsolete) A person who adulterates or corrupts something.^[3][2]

Related words

• adulterant
• adulter
• adultery
• adulterate
• adulteress
• adulterous
• alter

Usage notes

Dictionary.com warns against confusing adulterer with adulterate.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House