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Origin and history of wrongdoing

wrongdoing(n.)

also wrong-doing, "behavior opposed to what is right, injustice perpetrated by one on another;" also "physical damage sustained or inflicted;" late 14c., from wrong (n.) + doing. Wrong-doer is from late 14c. Wronger "one who commits injustice or causes injury" is from mid-15c.

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to wrongdoing

doing(n.)

"a thing done, a feat or action, good or bad," early 13c., verbal noun from do (v.). From early 14c. as "performance or execution of something." In the former sense, now usually in plural, doings. From c. 1600-1800 it also was a euphemism for "copulation."

wrong(n.)

late Old English, "that which is improper or wicked," from wrong (adj.). The meaning "an unjust action or anything contrary to right or justice" is recorded from c. 1200.

To be in the wrong "acting or being wrongly" is by c. 1400; phrase the wrong for "that which is wrong" is attested from c. 1300.

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    error
    also, through 18c., errour; c. 1300, "a deviation from truth made through ignorance or inadvertence, a mistake," also "offense against morality or justice; transgression, wrong-doing, sin;" from Old French error "mistake, flaw, defect, heresy," from Latin errorem (nominative erro
    falsehood
    Former noun forms in English, now extinct, included falsage "wrongdoing" (late 15c.), falsdom "deceitfulness, treachery;...
    complicity
    "the state of being an accomplice, partnership in wrongdoing or an objectionable act," 1650s, from French complicité, from...
    accusation
    late 14c., accusacioun, "charge of wrongdoing," from Old French acusacion "charge, indictment" (Modern French accusation)...
    repentance
    c. 1300, repentaunce, "state of being penitent, sorrow and contrition for sin or wrongdoing resulting in vigorous abandonment...
    convict
    mid-14c., "to convince by arguments, convince of wrongdoing or sin" (a sense now obsolete), from Latin convictus, past participle...
    offense
    late 14c., "hurt, harm, injury, pain;" also "breach of the law, wrongdoing; transgression against God, sin;" also "the causing...
    veil
    c. 1200, "nun's head covering," from Anglo-French and Old North French veil (12c., Modern French voile) "a head-covering," also "a sail, a curtain," from Latin vela, plural of velum "sail, curtain, covering," from PIE root *weg- (1) "to weave a web." Vela was mistaken in Vulgar L
    vile
    late 13c., "morally repugnant; morally flawed, corrupt, wicked; of no value; of inferior quality; disgusting, foul, ugly; degrading, humiliating; of low estate, without worldly honor or esteem," from Anglo-French ville, Old French vil "shameful, dishonorable; low-born; cheap; ugl
    evil
    Old English yfel (Kentish evel) "bad, vicious, ill, wicked," from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz (source also of Old Saxon ubil, Old Frisian and Middle Dutch evel, Dutch euvel, Old High German ubil, German übel, Gothic ubils), from PIE *upelo-, from root *wap- "bad, evil" (source also of

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