Etymologically
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defamation

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Pronunciation

  • /ˌdɛfəˈmeɪʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English diffamacioun, also defamacioun,[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman defamacion and diffamacion, and also directly borrowed from Medieval Latin diffamatio (“slander, accusation”).[5][4] The OED, in its 2016 revision, records the French word from the end of the 13th century and the Latin one in British sources from the 13th century; in late antiquity the Latin word had meant "publication".[5] It is a noun of action from the past participle of Latin diffāmō (“to spread abroad by ill report”),[5][4][3] which is formed from dis- and fāma (“report, rumour”).[4] Etymonline traces fāma to Proto-Indo-European *bha- (“to speak, tell, say”).[4] The modern spelling replaced the earlier form diffamation under the influence of defame.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dishonour or disgrace; damage to one's reputation: first in John Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon (before 1387), which says that it would be a great diffamacioun for a man to wear more than one ring.[5][7][8] Etymonline dates the word to about 1300, in the sense "disgrace, dishonour, ill repute".[4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, disgrace or disrepute itself, faded in the 18th century and is now rare or obsolete.[5][9][2] The active sense, the act of attacking someone's good name, is recorded from before 1450, in the morality play The Castle of Perseverance,[5][8] and Etymonline dates "calumny, slander" to the early 15th century.[4] Chaucer used the form diffamacioun in the Canterbury Tales.[10] The legal sense, the offence of harming a person's reputation by false statements, is first quoted from Thomas More in 1529;[5] Etymonline puts the sense "the wrong of injuring another's reputation" as early as the late 14th century,[4] and the Anglo-Norman word already meant an action at law for defamation by the late 13th century.[11][5] Johnson (1755) quoted Ayliffe for a definition that covered speech, writing and even gestures.[12] The phrase defamation of character is recorded from 1794.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – disgrace, dishonour, ill repute (Etymonline).[4]
  • before 1387 – dishonour, disrepute, in Trevisa (OED).[5]
  • before 1450 – the action of attacking someone's good name.[5][8]
  • 1529 – in law, the offence of damaging a reputation by false statements.[5]
  • 1794 – defamation of character.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act of harming a person's reputation by false or unfair statements; slander or calumny: The editor apologized for the defamation of the mayor.[2][13][5]
  2. (law) The offence or civil wrong of damaging the reputation of a person or organization by false statements, whether written (libel) or spoken.[13][5][9]
  3. (obsolete) Disgrace or dishonour.[2][9]

Word family

  • defamatory

Usage notes

Collins compares defamation with libel and slander; in law the term covers false statements whether written or spoken.[13][9]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  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