cruelty

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French crualté (modern cruauté),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from a popular form of Latin crūdēlitās (“cruelty”),^[2][5][4] formed on crūdēlis (“hard-hearted, cruel”), the source of cruel, with the suffix that became -ity.^[6][7][3] The adjective is related to crūdus (“rough, raw, bloody”), the source of crude.^[3] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from about 1141, for cruelty and wickedness and for wildness or ferocity.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of being cruel, delight in or indifference to the suffering of others: c1230, in the Ancrene Riwle;^[2][9] about 1200 in Etymonline, for indifference to, or pleasure in, the distress of any sentient being.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense "a cruel act" is recorded from the late 14th century.^[3][5] Several weaker senses did not last: "severity of pain, excessive suffering" (a1500–1634), "severity, strictness" (1556–1636) and, once about 1420, a harsh or foul smell.^[2][6] Johnson (1755) defined it as inhumanity, savageness and barbarity, quoting Shakespeare's Coriolanus.^[10] In modern law cruelty is conduct by one spouse that endangers the life or health of the other, grounds for divorce,^[11][6] and the Shorter Oxford records the phrase mental cruelty.^[5]

Timeline

• c1230 – the quality of being cruel.^[2]
• late 14th century – a cruel act.^[3]
• c1420 – (obsolete) harshness of smell.^[2]
• a1500 – (obsolete) severity of pain.^[2]
• 1556 – (obsolete) severity, strictness.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The quality of being cruel; a readiness to cause pain or suffering, or indifference to it: the cruelty of the guards.
2. A cruel act; inhuman treatment: the cruelties of the old prison system.
3. (law) Behaviour by a husband or wife that endangers the other's life or health, accepted as grounds for divorce.

Word family

• anticruelty
• cruelty-free

Related words

• cruel
• crude
• crudity
• raw

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. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins