Etymograph

English

felon

Felon comes from Old French felon ‘bad, evil, immoral’, and goes back to Early Medieval Latin fellōnem.

  1. Early Medieval Latinmodernfellōnem1
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400felon2‘bad, evil, immoral’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500feloun2
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595felon2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old French felon
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English felon
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, London: […] Iohn Danter: “I doe defie thy coniurations: / And doe attach…”.

Lineage

  1. Early Medieval LatinmodernfellōnemWiktionary, Old French felon
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400felonWiktionary, English felon‘bad, evil, immoral’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500felounWiktionary, English felon
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595felonWiktionary, English felon. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, London: […] Iohn Danter: “I doe defie thy coniurations: / And doe attach…”

The story

The adjective is derived from Middle English feloun, felun (‘base, wicked; hostile; of an animal: dangerous; of words: angry, harsh, slanderous; of things: dangerous, deadly; false, fraudulent; unlucky’) [and other forms], from Old French felon (‘bad, evil, immoral’) (compare fel (‘evil; despicable, vile’)), from Early Medieval Latin fellōnem; further etymology uncertain.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Etymology 1, adjective sense 3 (‘obtained through a felony’) is derived from the noun.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Early Medieval Latin fellōnem

Another origin of felon

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰelh₃-‘green’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfel‘bile, gall’uncertain
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400*felon‘evildoer, wrongdoer’uncertain
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500feloun
  5. Englishtodayfelon

From Middle English feloun, felone (‘type of carbuncle or sore with pus; swelling on a hawk’s body’), possibly from Old French *felon, from Latin fel (‘bile, gall; bitterness; poison; venom’): see etymology 1.

Today it means

adj Of a person or animal, their actions, thoughts, etc.: brutal, cruel, harsh, heartless; also, evil, wicked.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “felon”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old French felon. 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 / Early Medieval Latin fellōnem / felon

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