culprit
/ˈkʌlprɪt
/- The culprits behaved like seasoned thugs but claimed that they were guardians of law and order.
- Police and all concerned parties are working together to bring the culprit or culprits to justice.
- He alerted a police patrol at the top of the road and officers quickly arrived, by which time the culprits had fled.
Synonyms
- But she said supermarkets were the real culprits for selling alcohol to under-age drinkers.
- The real culprit is poverty, disease and starvation.
- The real culprit is the unchecked fragmentation of land holdings in the rural areas.
Origin
Late 17th century (originally in the formula Culprit, how will you be tried?, said by the Clerk of the Crown to a prisoner pleading not guilty): perhaps from a misinterpretation of the written abbreviation cul. prist for Anglo-Norman French Culpable: prest d'averrer notre bille '(You are) guilty: (We are) ready to prove our indictment'; in later use influenced by Latin culpa 'fault, blame'.
Formerly in England, when a prisoner in court pleaded not guilty the Clerk of the Crown said: ‘Culprit, how will you be tried?’ This expression, first recorded in 1678, may have started out as a mistake in reading the written abbreviation cul. prist., which stood for Old French Culpable: prest d'averrer notre bille, ‘(You are) guilty: (We are) ready to prove our indictment.’ Cul prit (later culprit) came to mean ‘a guilty person’. Use may have been influenced by culpable (Middle English) which comes from Latin culpa ‘fault, blame’.