corruption

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kəˈrʌp.ʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English corrupcioun, borrowed from Old French corruption,^[2][3][4] from Latin corruptiō (“a spoiling, seducing; a corrupt condition”),^[5][2] a noun of action from the past participle of corrumpere (“to destroy, spoil; to seduce, bribe”) (see corrupt).^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Decomposition after death: before 1340 in the OED,^[6] while Etymonline has the mid-14th century, of dead bodies and of the soul's depravity.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

Destruction or spoiling in general is from 1377,^[6] and putrid matter, pus, from the late 14th century, now dialect.^[5][3][7] Of public offices, bribery and other dishonest influence is from the early 15th century,^[5][3] and the alteration of language or of a text from the late 15th century.^[5][3] A corrupt form of a word is from the 1690s.^[5] Corruption of blood, the effect of an attainder that stopped a person inheriting or passing on land, is from 1563.^[6][3] The change of an institution for the worse is from the mid-17th century.^[3]

Timeline

• a1340 – decay of a dead body.^[6]
• 1377 – destruction, spoiling.^[6]
• early 15th century – bribery.^[5]
• 1563 – corruption of blood.^[6]
• late 15th century – altering of a text.^[3]
• 1690s – a corrupt form of a word.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Dishonest or illegal behaviour by people in power, especially bribery.
2. Moral decay; depravity.
3. The changing of a word or text so that it differs from the original, or the changed form: a corruption of the Latin.
4. Decay or rotting.

Word family

• anticorruption
• corruptionist
• incorruption
• corruption of blood

Related words

• corrupt
• rupture
• erupt
• bankrupt
• interrupt

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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)