embezzlement

Etymology

It is formed from English embezzle + -ment;^[2][3][4][5] the OED notes the Anglo-Norman noun embesilement in 1404,^[2] and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records it from 1402.^[6] Embezzle is from Middle English embesilen,^[3][7][8][9] from Anglo-Norman enbesiler (“to make away with, cause to disappear”),^[2][3][8] formed from en- and beseler, which appears to be the same word as Old French besillier (“to maltreat, ravage, destroy”).^[2][10][8] The Old French verb is of unknown origin;^[3][10][11] the OED cites Paul Meyer's derivation from the Latin prefix bis-, used as a pejorative in Late Latin.^[2] An earlier English noun was embezzling, from the early 15th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of embezzling: 1548, in E. Gest's Treatise againste Masse, at first in the older senses of the verb, such as making away with or squandering property.^[2][12] Etymonline also dates it to the 1540s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb embezzle first meant to make away with goods or money, or to destroy a document fraudulently,^[7][2] and in the 16th century also to weaken or to squander;^[2] the OED suggests that it was then associated with Latin imbecillare, to weaken (compare imbecile), which may have helped shape its later sense.^[2] The modern sense, to divert entrusted money to one's own use, dates from the 1580s,^[2][3] and embezzlement followed it, its older senses becoming obsolete.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as appropriating to oneself what one has received in trust for another, and also as the thing so appropriated.^[4] In English law, as Etymonline explains after the 1910 Encyclopaedia Britannica, embezzlement was distinguished from ordinary theft because the property was already in the possession of the clerk or servant who stole it; a statute of Henry VIII (1529) made such conversion of a master's goods a felony.^[3]

Timeline

• 1548 – the action of embezzling, at first in the obsolete senses of the verb (making away with, squandering), later fraudulent appropriation of entrusted property.^[2][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fraudulent taking of money or property that has been entrusted to one's care, as an employee's taking of an employer's funds or an official's taking of public money.^[9][13][2]
2. The act of embezzling in general.^[9][4]

Word family

• nonembezzlement

Related words

• embezzle
• bezzle
• imbecile

Usage notes

In law, Black's Law Dictionary distinguishes embezzlement from larceny and false pretenses: the criminal intent arises only after the property has come into the person's possession, not before or during the taking.^[13] It also lists defalcation and peculation as other terms for it.^[13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
5. ^ Whitney, William Dwight, ed. (1889–1891), The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, New York: The Century Co. (1901 printing)
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b 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)
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ a b c Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West