convict

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English convicten,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin convictus (“proved, convicted, refuted”), the past participle of convincō (“to overcome, conquer, prove wrong”),^{[5][3][6][7][8]} itself from con-, here perhaps an intensive prefix, and vincō (“to conquer”).^[6][7] The participle came into English first, as the adjective convict, convicted, before the other parts of the verb;^[5][9] it is also found in Anglo-Norman, as in an act of 1364–5,^[5] and the Anglo-Norman verb convicter is recorded from 1347.^[10] The noun comes from the verb, or from the old adjective, with the stress moved to the first syllable.^[5][11][6] Etymonline notes that the verb replaced Old English oferstælan.^[6] Convince comes from the same Latin verb.^[5][9][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Proved or pronounced guilty of an offence by a tribunal: the adjective convict, used as a past participle, before 1340 in Rolle's Psalter.^[5] The verb, to prove or declare guilty, is first recorded in Chaucer's A.B.C. (about 1366) and in Wyclif (about 1380).^[5] Etymonline gives the first sense as "to convince by arguments, convince of wrongdoing or sin", now obsolete.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th to 17th centuries the verb shared several senses with convince: to prove a point, to overcome or vanquish, and to make someone admit an opinion, all now obsolete.^[5] The sense of bringing home a sense of sin or error, from 1526, survives in religious language.^[5][8] The noun, a person convicted of an offence, appears in 1530,^[5] or about 1475 in Barnhart and Etymonline;^[3][6] its sense of a criminal serving a sentence of penal servitude dates from 1786,^[5] and in the 18th century it described the convicts transported to the colonies.^[9][8] Johnson (1755) still listed the adjective, "convicted; detected in guilt", quoting Shakespeare's Richard III.^[13] The slang clipping con is from 1893.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1340 – adjective and participle, proved guilty of an offence.^[5]
• c. 1366 – verb, to prove or declare guilty of error or wrongdoing, in Chaucer.^[5]
• c. 1380 – verb, to find guilty after trial.^[5]
• c. 1475 – noun, a person found guilty.^[3][6]
• 1526 – to convince of sin or error.^[5]
• 1530 – noun, a convicted person, in the OED.^[5]
• 1786 – noun, a criminal serving a sentence.^[5]
• 1893 – the clipping con.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To find or declare someone guilty of a crime, by the verdict of a court: The jury convicted him of fraud.^[14][8][5]
2. To show that someone is guilty of something wrong or mistaken: Their own letters convict them of carelessness.^[8][5]
3. To make someone aware of their sin or error.^[8][5]
4. (archaic) To prove an opinion or its holders wrong; to refute.^[8][5]

Noun

1. A person found guilty of a crime, especially one serving a prison sentence: The escaped convicts were caught within a day.^[14][8][5]
2. Any of various fish with striped skin, named from the striped clothing of convicts.^[8]

Adjective

1. (obsolete) Convicted.^{[14][8][5][13]}

Word family

• convictable
• convictive
• convictively
• reconvict
• self-convicted
• unconvicted
• con

Related words

• conviction
• convince
• victory
• victor

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ 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.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins