criminal

Forms

criminal m or f (plural criminais, not comparable)^[1] Medieval texts also write criminááes, cremijnaaes (1352) and creminal.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin criminālis (“relating to a crime or a trial”), a learned word.^[2][3][1] The Latin adjective is formed from crīmen (“charge, accusation; crime”) with the suffix -ālis.^[1] Wiktionary calls it Late or juridical Latin, and the DLE dates the Latin word to the late period.^[1][4] The same word is Galician criminal, Spanish criminal, French criminel, Italian criminale and Romanian criminal.^[1][5]

The Latin noun first meant a charge or accusation, then the act someone was charged with.^[6][7] It is usually connected with cernō (“to sift, decide”), as if “a means of deciding”, and Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *kréymn̥, from *krey- (“to sieve”), comparing Ancient Greek κρῖμα (krîma, “judgement”).^[6][7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, with the forms criminal and the plural criminááes.^[2][8] Cunha himself gives the 14th century.^[2][8] The sense was the legal one, “concerning crimes or their trial”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its legal meaning: cases, courts and law that deal with crimes rather than civil matters.^[2][9] Morais in 1789 also records a sense “who accuses with excessive rigour”, quoting a pastoral letter of the Bishop of Porto about listeners who are criminaes with the word of God.^[10] As a noun, o criminal came to mean the criminal court or jurisdiction, and a criminal case, as opposed to the civil one.^[11][12] Criminalista is recorded from 1813 and criminalidade from 1833.^[8]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, criminal and criminááes.^[2]
• 1352 – the spelling cremijnaaes.^[2]
• 14th century – Cunha's date for the word.^[8]
• 1755 – Folqman glosses it with Latin criminalis.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as “concerning crime”.^[10]
• 1813 – first record of criminalista.^[8]
• 1833 – first record of criminalidade.^[8]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the noun criminal, the criminal court or case.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to or involving a crime: Ele tem cadastro criminal.^[2][14][1]
2. (law) Relating to the trial of crimes, penal: direito criminal, processo criminal.^[2][12][15]

Noun

1. (law) The criminal jurisdiction or court, as opposed to the civil one.^[2][12][16]
2. (law) A criminal case or prosecution.^[12][17]

Word family

• criminalidade
• criminalista

Related words

• crime
• criminoso
• incriminar
• Galician criminal

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. criminal
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. criminal
4. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. criminal
5. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. criminal
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. crīmen
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. crime
8. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. crime
9. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 640
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 348
11. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. criminal
12. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. criminal
13. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. criminal
14. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. criminal
15. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. criminal
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. criminal
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2570