Indict

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɪnˈdaɪt/

Definitions

1. To formally accuse someone of a serious crime through official legal proceedings
2. To formally charge someone with a serious crime based on evidence presented to a grand jury
3. To formally accuse an individual of a significant wrongdoing through a legal process that involves a grand jury's decision

Etymology: The spelling of "indict" looks Latin, but the word actually reached English through French, and its odd "c" is a later addition. Middle English had "enditen" or "endyten", meaning to accuse, borrowed from Old French "enditer", which meant to dictate or compose. Behind that lies Late Latin "indictare", a frequentative of "indicere", "to proclaim", built from "in-" and "dicere", "to say". The Latin word could also trace back to "dictare", "to dictate", which is why the English verb is a close relative of "indite", the older sense of writing or composing. The vowel explains the modern pronunciation. The vowel in the Middle English form was pronounced like the long "ee" sound, and the Great Vowel Shift turned it into the "eye" sound we hear now. The "c" came later, when scholars tried to make the spelling look more Latin, so the English word looks like its Latin ancestor even though it came through French.

Synonyms: charge, accuse, prosecute

Antonyms: exonerate, absolve