offender

Etymology

It is formed from English offend + -er.^[2][3][4] Middle English also had offendour,^[5][4] compare Anglo-Norman offendour, recorded from 1409–10,^[6][2] and Middle French offendeur (about 1440–75).^[2] The verb offend is from Old French ofendre (“to strike, attack; to sin against”) and directly from Latin offendō (“to strike against; to stumble, commit a fault, displease”), from ob- (“against”) and -fendō (“to strike”), found only in compounds such as the source of defend.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who offends; a transgressor or sinner: before about 1425, in the Orcherd of Syon, a translation of Catherine of Siena.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense, one who breaks the law, is recorded before 1450 in Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes, which the MED quotes for its offendour.^[2][5] From 1599, in George Silver's Paradoxes of Defence, to 1794 an offender could also be an attacker, one on the offensive.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the word first as a criminal or transgressor.^[7] The word also applies, occasionally, to a thing that causes harm or annoyance.^[2][8] Phrases such as first offender are common.^[3]

Timeline

• ?a1425 – a transgressor or sinner.^[2]
• a1450 – a lawbreaker, in Hoccleve.^[2][5]
• 1599 – an assailant (obsolete by 1794).^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who breaks the law; one who has committed a crime: a repeat offender.
2. A person who breaks a rule or code of conduct; a wrongdoer or transgressor.
3. Something that causes harm or annoyance: The old boiler was the main offender behind the high bills.

Related words

• offend
• offence
• offense
• offensive
• defend

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c 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)
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster