delinquent

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman delinquant (“criminal, offender”), also Middle French delinquant, the present participle of delinquer (“to offend, fail”) used as a noun and adjective,^[2][3][4] and partly directly borrowed from Latin dēlinquēns (“offending”), the present participle of dēlinquō (“to fail, fall short; to do wrong, offend”).^[2][3][5][6] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1421.^[7] The Latin verb is formed from dē- and linquō (“to leave”),^[5][6][8][9] from Proto-Indo-European *leikʷ- (“to leave”).^[5][6] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart relate it to loan.^[4][3] The OED compares delinqüent, delincuente, delinquente, delinquente and Delinquent, all meaning a criminal, and the Vulgate's use of the Latin participle for a sinner.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who breaks the law or offends against morality; an offender: 1484, in Caxton's translation of the Ordre of Chyualry, in the form delinquaunt.^[2][3] Etymonline also dates to the late 15th century the sense of one who fails in a duty or obligation,^[5] which the OED records only from 1624.^[2] Hoad and Collins date the word to the 17th century.^[8][10]

Semantic evolution

The adjective followed a century after the noun: "offending against the law" from 1584 and "failing in duty or obligations" from 1603, in Philemon Holland's Plutarch.^[2][4][5] Johnson (1755) defined the noun simply as an offender, one who has committed a crime or fault.^[11] In 17th-century England delinquent became a political label for opponents of Parliament, especially those who helped the Royalist cause during the Civil War (1642).^[2] The financial senses grew out of the idea of failing in an obligation: a person who does not pay a debt or tax (1624), and, chiefly in American use, a debt or tax that is overdue, or a property or account on which one is owed (1652).^[2][4] In later use the noun narrowed to a person, especially a young person, who repeatedly commits minor crimes, as in juvenile delinquent;^[2][10][4] Collins labels the sense "one who fails in a duty" archaic.^[10]

Timeline

• 1484 – noun, an offender, a criminal.^[2][3]
• 1584 – adjective, offending against the law or morality.^[2]
• 1603 – adjective, failing in a duty or obligation.^[2][4]
• 1624 – noun, a person who neglects a duty, especially one who fails to pay a debt or tax.^[2]
• 1637 – adjective, of or typical of delinquents.^[2]
• 1642 – noun, an opponent of the Parliamentary party, a supporter of the Royalists.^[2]
• 1652 – adjective, of a debt or tax: overdue; of a property or account: owing such a debt.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person, especially a young person, who commits offences against the law, usually minor ones: The youth club tried to keep delinquents off the streets.^[10][4][2]
2. (archaic) A person who fails in a duty or obligation, especially one who fails to pay a debt or tax.^[10][4][2]

Adjective

1. Guilty of an offence or misdeed, especially a minor one; tending to commit such offences: delinquent teenagers.^[10][4][2]
2. Failing in or neglecting one's duty or obligations.^[10][4][2]
3. (chiefly US) Of a debt or tax: overdue and unpaid, in arrears; of a debtor or account: behind with payment: a delinquent mortgage.^[4][2]
4. Of, relating to or typical of delinquents or delinquency.^[4][2]

Word family

• delinquently
• nondelinquent
• predelinquent
• delinquency
• juvenile delinquent

Related words

• derelict
• relinquish
• relic
• relict
• loan

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.