English
fraudulence
Fraudulence comes from Latin fraudulentia ‘deceitfulness, disposition to defraud’, and goes back to fraus.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfraus1‘fraud, deceit’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfraudulentus2‘deceitful, fraudulent’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfraudulentia2‘deceitfulness, disposition to defraud’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400fraudulence2
- Englishearliest quotation 1759fraudulence2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin fraudulentus
- 2 Wiktionary, English fraudulence
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1759, Samuel Johnson, [The Idler]: “I ſuppoſe ſome of my friends, to whom I…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrausWiktionary, Latin fraudulentus‘fraud, deceit’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfraudulentusWiktionary, English fraudulence‘deceitful, fraudulent’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfraudulentiaWiktionary, English fraudulence‘deceitfulness, disposition to defraud’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400fraudulenceWiktionary, English fraudulence
- Englishearliest quotation 1759fraudulenceWiktionary, English fraudulence. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “fraudulence”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin fraudulentus. 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 fraus / fraudulence