c. 1300, "charge (with an offense, fault, error, etc.), impugn, blame," from Old French acuser "to accuse, indict, reproach, blame" (13c., Modern French accuser), earlier "announce, report, disclose" (12c.), or directly from Latin accusare "to call to account, make complaint against, reproach, blame; bring to trial, prosecute, arraign indict," from the phrase ad causa, from ad "with regard to" (see ad-) + causa "a cause; a lawsuit" (see cause (n.)). "Accuse commonly, though not invariably, expresses something more formal and grave than charge" [Century Dictionary, 1902]. Related: Accused; accusing; accusingly.
"person charged with a crime," 1590s, from past participle of accuse (v.).
c. 1600, "containing an accusation," from Latin accusatorius "of a prosecutor, relating to prosecution; making a complaint," from accusare "call to account, make complaint against" (see accuse). Related: Accusatorial (1801); accusatorially.
"one who accuses or blames," especially "person who formally accuses another of an offense before a magistrate," mid-14c., accusour, from Anglo-French accusour, Old French accusor, from Latin accusator, agent-noun from past-participle stem of accusare (see accuse).
grammatical case whose primary function is to express destination or goal of motion, mid-15c., from Anglo-French accusatif, Old French acusatif, or directly from Latin (casus) accusativus "(case) of accusing," from accusatus, past participle of accusare "to call to account, make complaint against" (see accuse).
The Latin word was chosen somewhat inaccurately to translate Greek (ptōsis) aitiatikē "(case) of that which is caused" based on the similarity of the Greek word to the Greek verb aitiasthai "to accuse." Greek aitia is the root of both, and means "cause" as well as "accusation," hence the confusion of the Romans. A more correct translation would have been casus causativus.
Typically it is the case of the direct object, but also sometimes denoting "motion towards." Nouns and adjectives in French, Spanish, and Italian, languages from which English has borrowed heavily, generally were formed from the accusative case of a Latin word. Related: Accusatival; accusatively.
c. 1200, "to rebuke," from Old French chalongier "complain, protest; haggle, quibble," from Vulgar Latin *calumniare "to accuse falsely," from Latin calumniari "to accuse falsely, misrepresent, slander," from calumnia "trickery" (see calumny).
From late 13c. as "to object to, take exception to;" c. 1300 as "to accuse," especially "to accuse falsely," also "to call to account;" late 14c. as "to call to fight." Also used in Middle English with a sense of "claim, take to oneself." Related: Challenged; challenging.
"charge with a crime, accuse," 1730, a back-formation from incrimination (q.v.) or else from Medieval Latin incriminatus, past participle of incriminare "to incriminate, accuse." Related: Incriminated; incriminating.
early 13c., biwreien, "to inform against;" mid-13c., "to speak ill of," from be- + Middle English wreien "betray," from Old English wregan "accuse" (cognate with Old Saxon wrogian, Dutch wroegen "accuse," Old High German ruogen, German rügen "to censure," Gothic wrohjan "accuse").
It has been perhaps somewhat influenced in sense by the unrelated betray. The sense of "reveal, expose" is from late 14c. "Probably more or less of a conscious archaism since the 17th c." [OED]. Related: Bewrayed; bewraying; bewrayment.
c. 1300, repreven, repruve, reproeven, "accuse, charge as a fault," from Old French reprover "accuse, blame" (12c.), from Late Latin reprobare "disapprove, reject, condemn," from Latin re- "opposite of, reversal of previous condition" (see re-) + probare "prove to be worthy" (see probate (n.)).
From mid-14c. as "deliver a rebuke, admonish;" late 14c. as "disapprove, condemn, find fault with." Related: Reproved; reproving; reprovable.
