criminology

Etymology

The OED, the Shorter Oxford and Dictionary.com take it as formed from English crimin- + -ology, with the stem of Latin crīmen (“accusation, crime”), the source of crime, as its first element.^[2][3][4][5] Klein calls it a hybrid of the Latin word and Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).^[6] Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary instead derive it from Italian criminologia.^[7][8] The OED notes that its first quotation, from 1872, attributes the word to French, but that French criminologie is apparently not recorded before 1888.^[2] The agent noun criminologist is older, from 1857.^[2][9] The Latin noun, which meant charge, accusation or crime, is probably from cernō (“to decide, to sift”), from Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sieve”), although Klein rejects this.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The study of crime and criminals: 1872, in the Boston Daily Advertiser.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The word arose in the late 19th century, when the study of crime was being set up as a discipline,^[2][5] and the OED gives it the sense of an academic subject as well as of the study itself.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED and Etymonline dated it to 1890,^[10][9] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate to 1882,^[11] and the revised OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1872.^[2][7] The older word criminalist, an authority on criminal law, goes back to the 1630s.^[9] Black's Law Dictionary describes the field as covering both the causes of crime, in the offender's constitution and in society, and the treatment of offenders.^[12]

Timeline

• 1872 – the study of crime and criminals.^[2][7] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate gives 1882, and Etymonline and the 1989 edition of the OED 1890.^[11][9][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The scientific study of crime, criminals and criminal behaviour, of law enforcement and of the punishment and treatment of offenders: She took a degree in criminology.^{[13][7][14][12]}

Word family

• criminological
• criminologically
• criminologist

Related words

• crime
• criminal
• criminalist
• discriminate
• -ology

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin