Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “accused” come from?

Accused comes from Middle English, from Old French acuser, from Latin accusare, formed from the prefix ad- meaning "to" and a root ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European ád.

accused (English): simple past tense and past participle of accuse;...

Definitions

  1. simple past tense and past participle of accuse;...

Ancestry of “accused”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Englishaccuseto find fault with, blame, censure; to charge...
2Middle Englishacusen—
3Old Frenchacuserto accuse
4Latinaccūsō—
5Latinad-to; usually prefixed to verbs, in which cases it...
6Latinīn-—
7Latinîn—
8Latinenlookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ
9Proto-Italicenin
10Proto-Indo-Europeanh₁énin

Words derived from “accused”

  • unaccused
  • coaccused
Every word from Proto-Indo-European h₁én →