Etymologically
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crime

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kraɪm/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cryme,[2] borrowed from Old French crime, crimne “crime, mortal sin”,[3][2] from Latin crīmen (“charge, accusation; fault, offense”) (genitive crīminis),[3][2][4] probably from cernere (“to decide, sift”),[3][2][5] from Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sieve”), hence “to discriminate”;[3] de Vaan accepts this derivation.[3] Klein, after Brugmann, rejects it and suggests *cri-men, originally “a cry of distress”,[3] and Merriam-Webster compares Old High German scrīan “to cry out”.[4] Latin cernere is also the source of discern, concern and recriminate.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sinfulness, an infraction of the laws of God: about 1250,[2] the mid-13th century in Etymonline.[3] The early meanings were “wickedness” and “sin”.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense, an offence punishable by law, is from the late 14th century,[3] first in the Wycliffe Bible in 1382.[8][2] An accusation or charge is from about 1386, now obsolete.[8] Any great wickedness is from the 1510s.[3] Old English glossed the Latin word with facen, which also meant “deceit, treachery”.[3] The verb, “to charge with an offence”, is from 1570, now chiefly military.[8][9] Crime wave is American English by 1893.[3] Crime doesn't pay dates from the mid-19th century and became a slogan of the American radio series The Shadow in the 1930s.[6] Criminal is from about 1400.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – sinfulness.[2]
  • 1382 – an offence punishable by law.[8][2]
  • c. 1400 – criminal.[2]
  • 1510s – any great wickedness.[3]
  • 1570 – verb, to charge with an offence.[8]
  • 1893 – crime wave.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An act, or a failure to act, that breaks a law and is liable to punishment.
  2. Unlawful activity in general.
  3. A serious offence against morality; a sin.
  4. Something foolish or shameful: it's a crime to waste food.

Verb

  1. (chiefly military) To charge with an offence.

Word family

  • crimeless
  • crimelessness
  • criminal
  • anticrime
  • crimogenic
  • criminology
  • decriminalize
  • noncriminal

Usage notes

In Somerset and Devon dialect the crime of the country meant the common talk, general gossip.[10]

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 c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ 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)