censure

Etymology

The noun is partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman censure and Middle French censure, a punishment imposed by the church, and partly a direct borrowing of their source, borrowed from Latin cēnsūra (“office of censor; assessment; judgement”).^[2][3][4][5] The Latin noun is formed from the past participle stem of cēnseō (“to assess, appraise, estimate”) and the suffix -ūra;^[2][6][7] its post-classical senses included harsh judgement, punishment and judgement by a church court.^[2] The verb is borrowed from Middle French censurer, from the noun,^[2][8][6] recorded in French from 1518 for submitting to a public reprimand and in 1585 for criticizing.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline allow that the English verb may also have been formed from the noun.^[3][6] The noun is related to censor and census.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A judicial sentence, originally an ecclesiastical one: probably about 1378, in Wycliffe's writings, according to Barnhart.^[3][6] The OED's first quotation, for a punishment imposed by the church, is from Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon, before 1387.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century both noun and verb meant simply an opinion or judgement, good or bad: the verb is first recorded in 1571 for forming an opinion,^[2] and Shakespeare's Brutus asks to be censured "in your wisdom".^[8] Trench used the word as an example of how judgements once neutral have narrowed to unfavourable ones, because unfavourable judgements are by far the more frequent.^[9] The sense of adverse judgement or blame is recorded for the verb in 1577 and for the noun before 1592.^[2] Etymonline dates the general sense "finding fault" to about 1600.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave "blame; reprimand; reproach" as the first sense, and "judgment; opinion" second.^[10] The formal reprimand of a member by a legislature or professional body appears as a verb in 1629 and as a noun in 1836.^[2] In Somerset and Cornwall dialect censure still meant an opinion or a judge's sentence in the 19th century.^[11][2]

Timeline

• c. 1378 – a judicial sentence, in Wycliffe's writings.^[3]
• before 1387 – a punishment imposed by the church.^[2]
• 1539 – an opinion or judgement of a person or thing.^[2]
• 1571 – verb, to form or give an opinion; to judge.^[2]
• 1577 – verb, to criticize severely, to condemn.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1587.^[12]
• before 1592 – noun, severe criticism, blame.^[2]
• 1629 – verb, to reprimand formally, as by a legislature.^[2]
• 1836 – noun, a formal statement of reprimand.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Strong disapproval; harsh criticism: The decision drew censure from all sides.^[13][12][2]
2. A formal statement of reprimand or condemnation, especially by a legislature or professional body: a vote of censure.^[2]
3. (Christian Church) A penalty imposed by the church, such as excommunication.^[2][8]
4. (obsolete) An opinion or judgement.^[2][8][10]

Verb

1. To criticize severely; to condemn: The report censured the board for its delays.^[13][12][2]
2. To reprimand formally: The senator was censured by his colleagues.^[2]
3. (obsolete) To form or give an opinion of; to judge.^[2][8]

Word family

• censurer
• censureless
• censurable
• miscensure
• uncensuring

Related words

• censor
• censorious
• censorship
• census

Usage notes

Trench (1859) contrasted the older neutral use, as in Shakespeare's "take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment", with the later, purely unfavourable sense.^[9]

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 m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins