Abet

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /əˈbɛt/

Definitions

1. To support or encourage someone in committing a wrongful or illegal act
2. To help or aid a person in performing a harmful or criminal deed
3. To actively assist or facilitate another in carrying out a prohibited action

Etymology: The verb "abet" is a bait-and-hound word at heart. Its Old French ancestor, "abeter," meant "to entice," built from "a-" ("to") and "beter," which meant to hound on or urge a dog to attack, a sense tied to setting dogs on their prey. Middle English took it up as "abetten," and the blood sport behind it is still visible in the word's shape. Scholars disagree about where the French "beter" came from. One proposal links it to Middle Dutch "bētan," meaning "incite," while another points to Old Norse "beita," "to cause to bite, bait, incite," which is related to Icelandic "beita," still used for setting dogs on and for feeding animals. Both trace back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to cause to bite," so the English word and the English noun "bait" share a common ancestry. Over time the sense moved from inciting an animal to inciting a person. To abet someone was to egg them on, and the modern meaning, giving active help to someone committing a crime, grew from that idea of urging another into action.

Synonyms: assist, aid, support

Antonyms: hinder, prevent