deception

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English decepcioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French deception,^[5][2][4][6] or directly from Late Latin dēceptiō (“a deceiving”),^[2][3][7][8] from Latin dēceptus, the past participle of dēcipiō (“to ensnare, beguile, cheat”),^[2][3][9] the source of deceive.^[9][3] The Latin verb is from dē- and capiō (“to take”), from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grasp”).^[2] The French word is recorded from the 13th century,^[5][2] and the Anglo-Norman decepçon from the mid-12th century, meaning deceit and also a quibble.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A lie, falsehood or piece of trickery: about 1412, in Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes, and before 1439 in Lydgate's Fall of Princes;^[11][3] the OED's first quotation is from Lydgate's minor poems, about 1430.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word meant a lie or deceitful action, and by the mid-15th century also an error or mistake.^[11][2] The sense "the state of being deceived" is recorded from 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica,^[5] and Johnson (1755) defined the word as "the act or means of deceiving; cheat; fraud; fallacy" and "the state of being deceived".^[12] A concrete sense, a trick or sham, appears in 1794, in Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho.^[5][2] The adjective deceptive was borrowed from French in 1611.^[3]

Timeline

• mid-12th century – Anglo-Norman decepçon, deceit.^[10]
• c. 1412 – decepcioun, a lie, deceit (Hoccleve).^[3][11]
• c. 1430 – the action of deceiving (Lydgate).^[5]
• mid-15th century – error, mistake.^[2][11]
• 1646 – the condition of being deceived.^[5]
• 1794 – a trick, a sham.^[5][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of deceiving someone; trickery: He won the contract by deception.^[13][4][5]
2. The state of being deceived.^[13][4][5]
3. Something that deceives; a trick or ruse.^[13][5][8]

Word family

• deceptional
• nondeception
• self-deception

Related words

• deceive
• deceptive
• deceit
• capture

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d 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)
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins