felony
Pronunciation
- /ˈfɛləni/[1]
Etymology
It is borrowed from Old French felonie (“wickedness, treachery, crime, cruelty”),[2][3][4][5][6] formed on felon (“villain, rogue, evil-doer”), the source of felon, with the suffix that became -y.[2][7][4] The OED reconstructs a Romance noun Vulgar Latin *fellōnia behind the French, Provençal, Spanish and Italian forms,[2][3] and the French noun goes back to fellō (“villain, evil-doer”), whose origin is uncertain.[3][8] Merriam-Webster takes it from *fillo (“one who skins or whips”), related to Old High German fillen (“to flog”),[4][3] and Etymonline also mentions Latin fel (“gall, poison”), on the notion of a person full of bitterness.[3] In Anglo-Norman the noun is recorded from the first half of the 12th century, with senses from malice and treachery to a crime and its penalty.[9] The legal sense came into English from Anglo-French.[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
Villainy, wickedness, and also anger or wrath: c1290, in the South English Legendary,[2][10] c1300 in Etymonline, which lists treachery, deceit, sin, crime, violent temper and evil intention among its early senses.[3] The OED notes that the sense "anger" follows Old French, in which it was very common.[2]
Semantic evolution
The general moral senses, wickedness, treachery (1297) and a sin or misdeed (a1400), had died out by the early 16th century.[2][10][6] The legal senses survived: in feudal law a felony was an act by a vassal that cost him his fee (c1330),[2][4] and in common law, from 1303, the name of a class of graver crimes.[2][3] Etymonline notes that the exact definition varied with time and place: in old use it was often a crime punished by forfeiture of land and goods, or by death,[3] and Johnson (1755) defined it as a crime that the law made capital.[11] The Shorter Oxford notes that it was formerly distinguished from a misdemeanour;[6] in the United States the word often means a crime punishable by death or by imprisonment in a state penitentiary.[3]
Timeline
- c1290 – villainy, wickedness; anger, wrath.[2]
- 1297 – guile, treachery.[2]
- 1303 – a grave crime in common law.[2]
- c1330 – (feudal law) an act of a vassal forfeiting his fee.[2]
- a1400 – a crime, misdeed or sin.[2]
- 1485 – (obsolete) daring, recklessness.[2]
- 1502 – (obsolete) verb, to commit feloniously.[2]
Modern meaning
Noun
- A serious crime, such as murder, rape or burglary, especially one punished by imprisonment for more than a year; in the United States contrasted with a misdemeanor: He was charged with a felony after the break-in.
- (feudal law) An act by a vassal that brought the forfeiture of his fee.
Word family
- felony murder
Related words
References
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
- ^ 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)
- ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.