condone

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin condōnō (“to give up, remit, forgive, pardon”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from com-, here an intensive prefix,^[5][4][3] and dōnō (“to give, present”),^[2][6] from dōnum (“gift”),^[5][4][3] from Proto-Indo-European *dō- (“to give”).^[3][5] It is related to donate, donation and pardon.^[4][7][8] In canon law the Latin verb referred especially to forgiving a breach of the marriage vow.^[7] According to Barnhart the verb is apparently not a back-formation from the older legal term condonation (1623).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears only in dictionaries: Cockeram (1623) glossed it "to give", and Blount (1656) "to give willingly, to forgive, or pardon", apparently just reproducing the Latin verb.^[2][3] Bailey (1731) also had it, but Johnson (1755), Webster (1828) and Craig (1847) left it out.^[2][4] Merriam-Webster dates its first use to 1805.^[9] The OED's first record in real use is from De Quincey in 1851, in the ordinary sense "to forgive or overlook an offence";^[2] Barnhart dates De Quincey's first use to 1859.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Until the 1850s the word was only an anglicized legal term.^[4] It came into general use through the Divorce Act (Matrimonial Causes Act) of 1857, where it meant to forgive a spouse's adultery.^{[2][3][8][10]} Fitzedward Hall remarked in 1873 that the old legal technicality had become popular as a stately euphemism for pardon or overlook.^[3] From 1871 it was also said of a fact or action that made up for an offence.^[2] The loose sense "to approve or tolerate, usually tacitly" is recorded from 1962, in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1623 – condone, to give, in Cockeram's dictionary.^[2][3]
• 1851 – to forgive or overlook an offence, in De Quincey.^[2] Barnhart dates De Quincey's use to 1859.^[4]
• 1857 – to forgive a spouse's adultery, in the Divorce Act.^[2][3]
• 1871 – of a fact or action, to make up for an offence.^[2]
• 1962 – to approve or tolerate, usually tacitly.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To accept or allow behaviour that is wrong, as if it did not matter; to tolerate or tacitly approve: The council does not condone littering in the park.^[9][2][11]
2. To pardon or overlook an offence: He found it hard to condone her lies.^[11][9][2]
3. (law) Of a spouse, to forgive an offence, usually adultery, so that it no longer counts as grounds for divorce.^[11][2][12]
4. Of an action or fact, to make up for an offence or make it seem forgiven.^[2][12]

Word family

• condoner
• condonable
• uncondoned
• condonation

Related words

• donate
• donation
• pardon
• donor

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press