Etymograph

English

crime

Crime comes from Middle English cryme, from Old French crime, from Latin crīmen.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcrīmen1‘charge, crime’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400crime1
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cryme1‘crime’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1590crime1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English crime
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto IX: “the tree of life, the crime of our first…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcrīmenWiktionary, English crime‘charge, crime’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400crimeWiktionary, English crime
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crymeWiktionary, English crime‘crime’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1590crimeWiktionary, English crime. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto IX: “the tree of life, the crime of our first…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with crime, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *krey- ‘sieve’

  • certain ← certeyn ← *certānus ← certus ← *kritos
  • secretary ← secrētus ← secernere ← cernō ← *krinō
  • secret ← sēcrētum
  • crisis ← κρίσις ← κρίνω
  • discrimination ← discriminatio ← discrīminō ← discrīmen ← discernō
  • discretion ← discrecioun ← discrētiō ← discerno ← cernō
  • critic ← critique ← criticus ← κριτικός ← κρίνω
  • critique ← critica ← criticus ← κριτικός ← κρῐτής
  • discrete ← discret ← discrētus ← discernō ← cernō
  • discern ← discernen ← discerner ← discernere ← cernō
  • discreet ← discrete ← discret ← discrētus
  • riddle ← riddil ← hriddel ← *hrīdrā ← *hrīdrą

67 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun A specific act committed in violation of the law, especially criminal law.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “crime”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin crīmen / crime