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fraudo

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word fraudo

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfrau̯.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfraːu̯.do][1]

Forms

fraudō (present infinitive fraudāre, perfect active fraudāvī, supine fraudātum); first conjugation[1] Plautus has the old perfect subjunctive fraudāssis and a deponent fraussus sit;[2][3] an archaic form frūdō is also reported.[3] Manuscripts sometimes have -u- for -au-.[4]

Etymology

It is formed from fraus (“deceit, fraud”) with the verb suffix -ō.[2][4][1] The origin of ⟨fraus⟩ is uncertain: de Vaan sets up Proto-Italic *frawV- and, with a query, Proto-Indo-European *dʰrou-V́-d(h)-, comparing Umbrian frosetom (“is not valid”) and Sanskrit ध्रुति (dhrúti-, “deception, error”);[5] Szemerényi and Schrijver derived it in different ways from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreugʰ- (“to deceive”), but he finds Szemerényi's steps ad hoc.[5] Etymonline also calls ⟨fraus⟩ of uncertain origin.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “when you have cheated someone who trusts you” in the Asinaria.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to deprive someone deceitfully of what is his by right, to cheat or defraud, and with an ablative to cheat out of something, as Cicero's farmer who could not cheat the tithe collector of a single grain without heavy penalty.[2][3][1] Figuratively it is to baffle hopes or break a promise, as in Valerius Flaccus.[2] It is to embezzle money, as Caesar's officers who kept back the cavalry's pay and sent all the booty home, and in law to evade a statute by a trick, as in the jurist Clemens.[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “cheat, withhold, defraud, deprive”.[7] Döderlein separates fallere, deceiving by false views, from frūstrārī, deceiving by false hopes.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of cheating someone who trusts you.[2][9]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of cheating the tithe collector.[2][9]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of embezzled pay.[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cheat, defraud, swindle; to deprive (of).[2][3][1][7]
  2. To baffle (hopes); to break (a promise).[2]
  3. To embezzle, purloin.[2][1]
  4. (law) To evade (a law) by trickery.[2]

Word family

  • dēfraudō
  • fraudabilis
  • fraudātiō
  • fraudātor
  • fraudatrix
  • sociofraudus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Fraudo.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/fraudo. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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