Etymologically
Log in

fraudulent

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 02:27. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈfɹɔːdjʊ.lənt/, /ˈfɹɔːdjə.lənt/[1]

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

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