fraudulent

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fraudulent, also fraudelent,^[2] borrowed from Old French fraudulent,^[3][4][5][6] or perhaps directly fraudulentus (“cheating, deceitful, dishonest”),^[7][8][4] formed from fraus (“deceit, injury”) with the suffix that gave English -ulent.^[3][7][4] Etymonline notes that the usual Old French word was fraudios, and that English had earlier used fraudful, from about 1400.^[4] Johnson compared French frauduleux.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Characterized by fraud, accomplished by deceit: 1412–20, in Lydgate's Troy Book, which calls Antenor þis traytour fraudelent.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Of people, guilty of fraud, cheating, the word is found from about 1430, again in Lydgate.^[3] In the 16th and early 17th centuries medical writers used it for a deceptive condition, after fraudulentus in the Latin translation of Avicenna,^[3] and in 1608 Topsell called an animal fraudulent in the sense "crafty".^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "full of artifice; trickish; subtle; deceitful" and "performed by artifice", quoting Milton.^[9] In 1796 it was used once as a noun for a fraudulent bankrupt.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – the earlier word fraudful.^[4]
• 1412–20 – accomplished by fraud, in Lydgate.^[3]
• c. 1430 – of people, cheating, dishonest.^[3]
• c. 1541 – in medicine, deceptive (obsolete by 1615).^[3]
• 1608 – of an animal, crafty.^[3]
• 1796 – noun, a fraudulent bankrupt.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Done by, obtained by or involving fraud: a fraudulent claim for compensation.^[10][11][3]
2. Of a person: given to deceiving or cheating; dishonest.^[10][3]

Word family

• fraudulence
• fraudulently
• fraudulentness
• nonfraudulent
• unfraudulent

Related words

• fraud
• defraud
• fraudful

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster