victim

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈvɪk.tɪm/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French victime,^[2] and directly from Latin victima (“animal offered as a sacrifice”),^[3][2][4][5] a word of uncertain origin.^[3][2] It is perhaps related to vicis “turn, occasion”, as in vicarious, the victim being an exchange with the gods, according to de Vaan, who also mentions other options;^[3] others connect it with Gothic weihs “holy” and German weihen “to consecrate”, from the notion of a consecrated animal,^[3][2][6][7] from Proto-Indo-European *weik- (“to set apart”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A living creature killed and offered as a sacrifice: 1497 in the OED and Barnhart,^[8][2] the late 15th century in Word Origins and NODE,^[4][5] the mid-15th century in Etymonline.^[3] Old English glossed Latin victimis with onsegednessum.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Christ as an offering for mankind is from 1736.^[8] A person who is badly hurt, tortured or killed by another is from 1660,^[8][2] the mid-17th century in Word Origins.^[4] A person oppressed by some power, or ruined by disease, disaster or a passion, is from 1718,^[3][8] and the weaker sense, a person cheated or taken advantage of, from 1781, in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.^[2][3] Fall a victim to is from 1764.^[8] Victimize is from 1830,^[2] and victimhood from 1831.^[3]

Timeline

• 1497 – a sacrificial animal.^[8][2]
• 1660 – a person hurt or killed by another.^[8][2]
• 1718 – a person oppressed or ruined.^[3][8]
• 1736 – Christ as an offering.^[8]
• 1781 – a person cheated.^[2][3]
• 1830 – victimize.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person harmed, injured or killed by another or by a crime: a murder victim.
2. A person who suffers from an accident, disease or other condition.
3. A person who is cheated or tricked.
4. A living creature killed as a sacrifice in a religious rite.

Word family

• victimhood
• victimless
• nonvictim
• victimology
• victimize
• victimise

Related words

• vicarious

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press