Etymologically
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crime

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 14:02. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kʁim/[1]

Forms

crime m (plural crimes)[1] Old French crimne (about 1165), crimene (1174), crim (14th century).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin crīmen (“accusation; crime, offence”).[2][5][6][7][8] The Latin word belongs with cernō (“to sift; to decide”) and crībrum (“sieve”): it must first have meant “what serves to sort, to decide”, then in legal language “judicial decision”, then the charge on which it rests, and by classical times the guilty act itself.[5][3] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *kréymn̥, from “*krey-” “to sieve”.[1] Littré compared Ancient Greek κρίμα (kríma, “judgement”).[4]

Compare Italian crimine, Occitan crim, Spanish crimen and Portuguese crime.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Livre des Rois (about 1165) uses crimne for a grave breach of morality or law.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Beaumanoir's Coutumes de Beauvaisis (1283) gives it its narrower legal sense, the gravest kind of offence.[2][5] In classical French it was any very grave violation, of morality or of religion (a mortal sin), as in Racine's J'ignore de quel crime on a pu me noircir.[9] Everyday French uses it above all for murder, and hyperbolically in c'est un crime de… for an unforgivable mistake.[5][3]

Crime contre l'humanité appears in a speech by Anatole France in 1905 before becoming a term of international law.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1165 – Crimne, Livre des Rois.[2]
  • 1283 – Legal sense, Beaumanoir.[2]
  • 14th century – Crim in royal ordinances.[4][9]
  • 1905 – Crime contre l'humanité, Anatole France.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (law) A crime, the most serious class of offence, tried by the cour d'assises: crimes, délits et contraventions.[3][1]
  2. A murder: l'arme du crime.[5][3]
  3. (broadly) A grave breach of morality or law: crime contre l'humanité, crime de guerre.[3][5]
  4. (hyperbolic) An unforgivable act: c'est un crime de gâcher ça.[5]

Word family

  • criminalité
  • criminel
  • incriminer
  • récriminer
  • Latin crīmen

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1339a
  9. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse