Etymologically
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criminel

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Pronunciation

  • /kʁi.mi.nɛl/[1]

Forms

criminel (feminine criminelle, masculine plural criminels, feminine plural criminelles)[1] Old French criminal, creminal;[1][2] Littré quotes criminal and crimineux from medieval texts.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French criminal, borrowed from Late Latin crīminālis (“criminal, as opposed to civil, (Christian Latin) blameworthy”),[4][5][1][6] from crīmen (“charge, accusation; crime”).[7][8] In Christian Latin the adjective was applied to the deadly sins.[4][5]

Littré lists Occitan criminal, Spanish criminal and Italian criminale.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1080) la gent criminel is the impious people, the pagan enemy.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with both its moral and its legal sides: pechiez criminals were deadly sins (1174–1176), and dreit creminal, criminal law, appears in Étienne de Fougères about 1174–1178.[4][5] In the 15th century it could also mean violent, bloody.[3]

As a noun it was first used of an accused person (1549) and then of someone guilty of a serious crime (1602); au criminel, in criminal proceedings, dates from 1648.[5][4] The brigade criminelle of the police became familiarly la Criminelle, then la Crim', spread by cinema and television from the 1950s.[5] Criminel de guerre names someone who has broken the laws of war.[9][10]

Timeline

  • c. 1080 – La gent criminel in the Chanson de Roland.[4]
  • 1174–1176 – Pechiez criminals “deadly sins”.[4]
  • c. 1174–1178 – The legal sense, dreit creminal.[4]
  • 1539 – The derivative criminalité.[5]
  • 1549 – First used as a noun.[5]
  • 1648 – Au criminel, in Guez de Balzac.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Guilty of a crime or of a grave breach of the law or of morals.[10][9]
  2. Constituting a crime: un incendie criminel, arson.[10][4]
  3. (law) Relating to crimes and their trial, as opposed to civil: droit criminel, procédure criminelle.[4][3]
  4. (familiar, hyperbolic) Very wrong, a shame: c'est criminel de gaspiller ce pain.[10]

Noun

  1. A criminal, someone guilty of a crime: criminel de guerre, a war criminal.[10][9]
  2. Au criminel: before the criminal courts.[4][5]

Word family

  • criminellement
  • criminalité
  • criminaliser
  • criminaliste
  • criminalistique
  • criminogène

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  3. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1339a
  7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  10. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert