Arraigned

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /əˈɹeɪnd/

Definitions

1. To officially bring a person into a judicial setting to respond to charges related to a crime To formally summon someone to court to answer specific legal charges To present an individual before a judge for the purpose of responding to criminal accusations
2. To bring a defendant into court to hear and respond to legal accusations
3. To formally summon an accused individual to court for a hearing of the charges

Etymology: The word that became "arraign" started out as a verb of talking rather than accusing. Old French "araisnier" meant "to speak to, address", and only later, in legal settings, "to accuse in a law court". Its ancestor reaches back to Latin "ratiō", meaning reason or discourse, so the English verb is a distant cousin of "reason". The path to English ran through Middle English "areynen", which by the late 14th century could mean to interrogate or reprimand as well as to bring someone before a court. The sense of formally calling a prisoner to answer charges became the dominant one, and it is the sense that "arraigned" carries today. The English spelling with a "g" is a later error. Writers in the 16th century inserted it by hypercorrection, apparently by analogy with Latin-derived words, and the "g" has stayed ever since, even though the word has no true link to the Old French forms that once seemed to explain it.

Synonyms: charged, indicted

Antonyms: dismissed