condemnation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English condempnacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Late Latin condemnātiō,^[2][5][6][7] a noun of action from condemnātus, the past participle of condemnō (“to sentence, to blame”).^[2][7][4] Dictionary.com allows that it came by way of Middle French,^[8] and the Anglo-Norman form condempnacion is recorded from the third quarter of the 13th century, meaning condemnation, conviction and forfeiture;^[9] the OED compares French condamnation, found from the 16th century.^[6] The Latin verb is formed from com-, here intensive, and damnō (“to sentence”),^[10][2] from damnum (“penalty”).^[10] It is the noun of action of the verb condemn.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of condemning, especially damnation or a sentence of guilt: about 1384, in the earlier Wycliffite Bible, where Romans 5:18 speaks of all men coming "in to condempnacioun".^[6][3] Etymonline gives "strong censure" as its late 14th-century sense.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was largely theological and legal: damnation, a sentence or conviction, and the penalty a sentence imposed.^[3] Tyndale's revised Bible (1534) used it for the ground or reason for condemning, in John 3:19,^[6] and Whittingham's version of 1557 for the state of being condemned.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as the sentence dooming someone to punishment and quoted Romans 8: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them".^[11] In 19th-century law it gained the senses of a sentence of forfeiture (1885)^[6] and, in the United States, of assigning property to public use or to the payment of a debt (1852);^[6] Merriam-Webster also records the judicial condemning of goods, such as food, as unfit for use or forfeited.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – condemnation, damnation, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[6][3]
• 1534 – the grounds for condemning.^[6]
• 1557 – the state of being condemned.^[6]
• 1852 – US law, assignment of property to public use.^[6]
• 1885 – a sentence of forfeiture.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Strong disapproval or censure: The attack drew condemnation from every party.^[4][6]
2. The act of condemning someone in law; a judicial conviction or sentence.^[6][5][4]
3. The state of being condemned.^[6][11]
4. A reason or ground for condemning.^[6][4]
5. Especially in the US, the legal taking of land for public use, or the official judgment that something, such as food, is unfit for use or forfeited.^[4][6]

Word family

• recondemnation

Related words

• condemn
• damn
• damnation
• damage
• contemn

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b 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. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ 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.