forfeiture

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English forfeture, also forfaiture,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French forfeture, also forfaiture,^[5][2][6][7] which meant a crime or transgression and the penalty for it.^[7] Anglo-Norman had the word from 1194–99.^[8] It comes from forfait (“crime”), the source of forfeit, with the suffix -ure.^[5][7][4][6] The Old French noun was originally the past participle of forfaire (“to transgress”),^[7] from for- (“outside, beyond”), from Latin forīs (“outside”), and faire (“to do”), from faciō (“to make, do”).^[7][9][10] The notion is perhaps of going beyond what is right.^[7] Compare Medieval Latin forisfactūra.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A transgression of the law, a crime or sin: about 1380, in Wyclif's works.^[5] Etymonline dates the word to the mid 14th century, in the sense of losing property as a punishment,^[7] and Dictionary.com to 1300–50.^[11] Anglo-Norman already had the senses of offence, confiscation and fine.^[8]

Semantic evolution

English took over the Old French range, from the offence itself to what followed from it.^[7][5] Within twenty years of the first record the word had also meant the loss of goods or rights through an offence (1389), the punishment (1390) and the thing given up (1399).^[5] Gower used it of the sin against the creator, and the Middle English Dictionary records first forfeture for the sin of Adam.^[2] The sense "crime, sin" died out in the 17th century, as did "punishment",^[5][6] and a weaker use for a breach of rules appears only in Gascoigne's Noble Arte of Venerie of 1575.^[5] Johnson (1755) gives just two senses, the act of forfeiting and the thing forfeited, "a mulct; a fine".^[12] Merriam-Webster Unabridged defines the word by the loss of ownership or of a right after a breach of duty or of an agreement.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – transgression of a law; crime, sin (obsolete after 1628).^[5][13]
• 1389 – the loss of, or liability to lose, an estate, goods, an office or a right, through an offence or a breach of agreement.^[5][13]
• 1390 – the punishment for an offence (obsolete after 1667), in Gower.^[5][13]
• 1399 – the thing forfeited; a fine.^[5][13]
• 1575 – a breach of rules.^[5][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The loss of property, money or a right as a penalty for a crime or for breaking an agreement: The court ordered the forfeiture of the smuggler's boat.^[3][5][14]
2. The act of forfeiting something.^[14][12]
3. Something forfeited; a fine.^[14][5][6]
4. (obsolete, 1380–1628) A transgression of the law; a crime or sin.^[5][6][2]
5. (obsolete, 1390–1667) The punishment for an offence.^[5][6]

Related words

• forfeit
• foreign
• forest
• foreclose

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b 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 d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins