arraignment

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English arreinement, also areignement and arainment,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French araisnement (“the action of speaking to”),^[4][5][6][7] the Anglo-Norman and Old French noun^[4][2] from araisnier (“to speak to, address; to accuse in a law court”) with the suffix -ment,^[4][5][6] the verb that gave arraign.^[5][4] Etymonline traces the French verb through Vulgar Latin *arratiōnō to Latin adratiōnō,^[4] which the OED explains as formed from ad (“to”) and ratiōnō (“to reason, talk”), from ratiō (“reason, discourse”).^[5][4] The -g- of the modern spelling, unetymological, is a 16th-century overcorrection after words like reign.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In law, the procedure of calling an accused person to answer a formal charge: 1444, in the Rolls of Parliament.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century,^[4] Dictionary.com to 1400–50,^[8] and the OED's first record is from 1549, in Coverdale's translation of Erasmus's Paraphrase.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the formal charge in court the word widened, by 1595, to any charging of someone with faults, a hostile criticism or denunciation.^[5][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as the act of arraigning, an accusation or charge, and quoted Dryden calling Juvenal's sixth satire "an arraignment of the whole sex".^[9] In modern law it is the first step of a criminal prosecution, in which the defendant is brought before the court to hear the charges and enter a plea.^[10]

Timeline

• 1444 – in law, the calling of an accused person to answer a formal charge.^[2] The OED's first record of this sense is from 1549.^[5]
• 1595 – a charging with faults; hostile criticism.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) The act of bringing an accused person before a court to hear the charges and enter a plea, or the fact of being arraigned.^{[10][3][5][2]}
2. A severe accusation or hostile criticism: The report was a sweeping arraignment of the city's housing policy.^[3][5][9]

Related words

• arraign
• ratio

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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)
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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ 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.
10. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West