incriminate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin incrīminō (“to accuse”), through the past participle incrīminātus,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} though the OED, Etymonline, Klein and Weekley call the Latin verb medieval.^{[8][9][10][11]} Etymonline and Barnhart also allow a back-formation from incrimination, which is recorded much earlier, from 1651,^[9][12][8] and the OED thinks the English verb perhaps owes something to French incriminer, recorded in 1791.^[8] The Latin verb is formed from in- and crīminor (“to accuse of a crime”),^[8][4][10] or directly from the prefix and crīmen (“charge, verdict, crime”), the source of crime.^[7][2][5][6] The prefix is variously explained as causative, as "against", and as "into, towards".^[7][12][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To charge with a crime, to involve in an accusation: 1736, in the second edition of Bailey's Dictionarium Britannicum.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives about 1736,^[2] Barnhart 1730–36, also from Bailey,^[12] Etymonline 1730,^[9] and Dictionary.com 1720–30.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word began with the sense of bringing a charge, like the older verb criminate.^[8][9] Hoad dates the wider sense "to involve in an accusation, to inculpate" to the 19th century,^[6] and the Shorter Oxford adds "to tend to prove the guilt of".^[4] Modern dictionaries reflect the shift from accusing to showing guilt: Collins now lists "to imply or suggest the guilt or error of" before "to charge with a crime or fault",^[13] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged records uses for evidence that points to guilt and for exposing oneself to the risk of a prosecution.^[2]

Timeline

• 1736 – to charge with a crime; to involve in an accusation.^[8][2] Barnhart gives 1730–36 and Etymonline 1730.^[12][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make someone appear guilty of a crime or fault, or to provide evidence of it: The fingerprints on the safe incriminated the night guard.^[13][7][2]
2. To accuse someone of a crime or fault; to charge.^{[13][7][2][8]}
3. To involve someone, especially oneself, in a criminal prosecution or the risk of one: She declined to answer questions that might incriminate her.^[2]

Word family

• incrimination
• incriminatory
• incriminator

Related words

• criminate
• crime
• criminal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins