defraud

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English defrauden, also diffrauden,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French defrauder^{[5][4][6][7][8][9]} and directly borrowed from Latin dēfraudō (“to cheat”).^{[6][2][10][8]} Merriam-Webster gives defrauder as the French form,^[3] and the OED notes that the Old French verb, which had several spellings of its prefix, is recorded in the 14th century.^[5] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it from about 1323.^[11] The Latin verb is formed from dē-, read as "completely" by Barnhart and Etymonline and as "from" or "away" by the Oxford Dictionary of English and Skeat,^{[6][4][12][13]} and fraudō (“to cheat”), from fraus (“deceit, fraud”).^{[6][4][7][8][9]} Etymonline calls the noun of uncertain origin, noting that a connection with a Sanskrit word for deception has been proposed;^[4] Merriam-Webster refers it to the family of dream.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To deprive a person by fraud of what is theirs by right: 1362, in Langland's Piers Plowman.^[5] Barnhart dates the same poem's version to before 1376,^[6] Etymonline says the late 14th century,^[4] and Dictionary.com 1325–75.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The sense has changed little: from the start the verb meant both taking what belongs to someone and withholding it.^[5][4][2] The Wycliffite Bible of about 1384 used it with both a direct and an indirect object, a construction that lasted to 1670, and absolutely, for acting with fraud,^[5] the use of "Defraud not" in the Authorized Version of Mark 10:19.^[10] In Middle English it was also used of depriving someone of something other than property, such as spiritual benefits, learning or merited praise.^[2] From 1497 it was used figuratively, of a thing cheated of what is due to it, a use the OED calls archaic or obsolete.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as to rob or deprive by a wile or trick, with of before the thing taken.^[15] The noun, meaning the same as defraudation, ran from about 1450 to 1800 or the early 19th century.^[5][10]

Timeline

• 1362 – to deprive a person by fraud of what is theirs.^[5]
• c. 1384 – with a direct and an indirect object (obsolete by 1670); absolutely, to act with fraud.^[5]
• c. 1450 – noun, defraudation (obsolete by about 1800).^[5]
• 1497 – figurative, to cheat a thing of what is due to it.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take or keep money, property or rights from someone by deceit; to cheat or swindle: The agent defrauded the pensioners of their savings.^[16][3][5]
2. To engage in fraud.^[3][10][5]

Noun

1. (obsolete, c. 1450–1800) Defraudation.^[5][3][10]

Word family

• defraudation
• defrauder
• undefrauded

Related words

• fraud
• fraudulent

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins