peculate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pecūlātus, the past participle of pecūlor (“to embezzle public money”),^[2][3][4][5] from pecūlium (“private property”),^[5][4][6][3] originally property in cattle,^[2][3] from pecū (“cattle, money”).^[7] The obsolete noun peculate, embezzlement, is from the Latin noun of the same form, meaning embezzlement of public money;^[5][8] compare Middle French péculat (1530) and Spanish peculato.^[5] Barnhart takes the verb as probably a back-formation from the earlier peculation (1658).^[9] The Latin words are related to peculiar and pecuniary,^[2][10][7] and the American Heritage Dictionary traces them to Proto-Indo-European *peḱu- (“wealth, livestock”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, embezzlement, in 1617, in a letter of George, Lord Carew.^[5] The verb, to rob a state or government by embezzlement, and to embezzle money, is first recorded in 1715.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb began with the state as its object, "to rob the public treasury", a sense the OED records until 1816,^[5][8][7] and soon took the money itself as object (1715) and was used without an object (1730).^[5][4] Barnhart and Etymonline date it later, from 1749, Barnhart with the sense "rob" first and "embezzle" from 1802.^[9][2] The obsolete noun, the same as peculation, was used from 1617 to 1753.^[5][8][4] Phillips's dictionary (1658) defined the earlier peculation as a robbing of the prince or commonwealth.^[7][5]

Timeline

• 1617 – noun, embezzlement (obsolete by 1753).^[5]
• 1715 – verb, to rob a state by peculation (obsolete by 1816); to embezzle money.^[5][4]
• 1730 – intransitive, to embezzle.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To embezzle or take for one's own use money or goods entrusted to one's care, especially public funds: The treasurer peculated thousands from the town's accounts.^[4][10][5]
2. To practise embezzlement.^[4][5]

Noun

1. (obsolete, 1617–1753) Peculation.^[5][4][8]

Word family

• peculation
• peculator

Related words

• peculiar
• peculium
• pecuniary
• fee

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins