English
fraudulence
Fraudulence comes from Latin fraudulentia ‘deceitfulness, disposition to defraud’, and goes back to fraus.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfraus‘fraud, deceit’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfraudulentus‘deceitful, fraudulent’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfraudulentia‘deceitfulness, disposition to defraud’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400fraudulence
- Englishearliest quotation 1759same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfraus‘fraud, deceit’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfraudulentus‘deceitful, fraudulent’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfraudulentia‘deceitfulness, disposition to defraud’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400fraudulence
- Englishearliest quotation 1759same form
Earliest quotation: 1759, Samuel Johnson, [The Idler]: “I ſuppoſe ſome of my friends, to whom I…”
The story
Fraudulentus is derived from fraus (‘deceit, fraud’) (from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrew- (‘to mislead’)) + -ulentus (‘abounding in, full of’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- ‘to deceive, mislead’
Today it means
noun The condition of being fraudulent; deceitfulness.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin fraus / fraudulence