indemnity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English indempnite,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French indemnité,^[5][3][6] recorded in French from 1367,^[5] from Late Latin indemnitās (“security against damage or loss”),^[5][3][4][7] from indemnis (“unhurt, free from loss”),^[5][3][6][8] formed from in- (“not”) and damnum (“loss, damage, harm”).^[3][4][6][9] The Middle English Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary take the English word from Anglo-Norman,^[2][8] and Barnhart from Middle French.^[4] The Latin noun is the source of damage and of damn.^[6][3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Security against possible loss: about 1452, in the Paston letters, where the writer intends nothing but the safety and indempnite of the king's person.^[2] The OED's first quotation, also from the Paston letters, is dated about 1467,^[5] Etymonline gives the middle of the 15th century,^[3] and Barnhart dates indempnite "payment for loss" to 1444.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was security or protection against loss or hurt;^[5][6][3] the Middle English Dictionary also records a payment made to compensate for lost revenue.^[2] A special early use was a payment made to an archdeacon or bishop for the fees he lost when a church was annexed to a religious house, recorded in an act of Henry VIII of 1542–3.^[5][11] From the 17th century the word was used of a legal exemption from penalties, especially in an Act of Indemnity (1647), which freed those who had acted illegally or unconstitutionally from punishment;^[5][3][6] Johnson (1755) defined it only as security or exemption from punishment.^[12] The sense "compensation for loss or damage" is first recorded in 1793,^[5][3] and a sum paid as compensation in 1872.^[5] Weekley dates the war indemnity, a payment exacted by a victor as a condition of peace, from the five milliards Germany demanded of France in 1871.^[13][11] In Canada an indemnity is also the salary of a member of Parliament or of a legislature.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1452 – security against possible loss.^[2]
• 1542 – a payment to an archdeacon or bishop for lost fees (obsolete).^[5]
• 1647 – Act of Indemnity, an act granting exemption from penalties.^[5]
• 1670 – a legal exemption from penalties or liabilities.^[5] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1640s.^[3]
• 1793 – compensation for loss or damage.^[5][3]
• 1818 – attributive use, as in indemnity bill.^[5]
• 1872 – a sum paid as compensation.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Security or protection against harm, damage or loss, often through insurance: The policy gives indemnity against flood damage.^[9][14]
2. Compensation for loss or damage, or a sum paid as compensation; indemnification.^[14][9][5]
3. A payment demanded by the victor in a war as a condition of peace.^[11][13]
4. (law) Exemption from penalties or liabilities incurred by one's actions.^[14][9] Act of Indemnity, an act of Parliament granting such exemption.^[14][9][5]
5. In Canada, the salary paid to a member of Parliament or of a legislature.^[14]
6. (obsolete, 1542–1545) A payment made to an archdeacon or bishop for fees lost when a church was annexed to a religious house.^[5][11]

Word family

• indemnitee
• double indemnity

Related words

• indemnify
• damage
• damn
• condemn

Usage notes

The OED also records indemnity in the opposite sense of damage or hurt, from 1556 to 1629, from Old French indampnité.^[5]

References

1. ^ 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 d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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 Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins