molestation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English molestacioun, also molestation,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman molestation and Middle French molestation, recorded from 1334,^[5][4][6] and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin molestātiō (“action of molesting”),^[5][3][6] which is found from the 4th century, and in British sources from about 1200.^[5] The Latin noun is formed from molestātus, the past participle of molestō (“to trouble, annoy”),^[5][4][3] the source of molest, which is from molestus (“troublesome, burdensome”).^[5][7] The OED and Merriam-Webster derive molestus from the base of mōlēs (“mass, burden”);^[5][4] Etymonline calls the connection only possible.^[3] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded in 1302, meaning disturbance.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Scots law, the harassing of a person in the possession or use of lands or the holding of an office: 1416, in the charters of Melrose Abbey.^[5][3] Etymonline dates the word to about 1400, as the action of annoying or vexing.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The general sense of harassment, disturbance or hostile interference is recorded from 1435, in the Rolls of Parliament, where it stands beside arest and empeschement in a legal formula;^[5][2] the Middle English Dictionary also records the senses "tribulation, distress".^[2] From about 1460 it could mean a single trouble or annoyance, a sense now rare.^[5][2] In English law it came to mean intentional injury to another's person, character or property, especially by one spouse to the other after a separation (1602).^[5][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "disturbance; uneasiness caused by vexation".^[9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged marks the sense "vexation, a cause of harassment" as archaic.^[4] In 1945 an American journal used it for sexual assault or abuse, the sense that now prevails, matching the sexual sense of the verb molest.^[5][10][11]

Timeline

• 1416 – in Scots law, the harassing of a person in the possession of lands or an office.^[5]
• 1435 – harassment, hostile interference, annoyance.^[5][2]
• c. 1460 – an instance of molesting; a trouble, an annoyance.^[5][2]
• 1602 – in law, deliberate injury to another's person, character or property, especially between separated spouses.^[5]
• 1945 – originally in the United States, sexual assault or abuse.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of subjecting someone, especially a child, to unwanted sexual contact; sexual abuse: He was charged with molestation.^[5][10][11]
2. The act of harassing, disturbing or interfering with someone with hostile intent.^[4][5][6]
3. (law) Deliberate interference with another person so as to injure them, their character or their property, especially by a spouse after separation.^[5][3]
4. (archaic) A cause or state of vexation or distress.^[4][5][9]

Related words

• molest
• molester

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
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 Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin