guilt
pronunciation
How to pronounce guilt in British English:
UK [ɡɪlt]
How to pronounce guilt in American English:
US [ɡɪlt]
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- Noun:
- the state of having committed an offense
- remorse caused by feeling responsible for some offence
Word Origin
- guilt
- guilt: [OE] Guilt is a strictly English word; no other Germanic, or indeed Indo-European language has it, and it is not clear where it came from. One theory is that, like guild and yield, it comes ultimately from Germanic *gelth- ‘pay’, and originally meant ‘debt’. This is not generally accepted, but it is notable that the German word schuld means ‘debt’ as well as ‘guilt’, with ‘debt’ being the original sense.
- guilt (n.)
- Old English gylt "crime, sin, moral defect, failure of duty," of unknown origin, though some suspect a connection to Old English gieldan "to pay for, debt," but OED editors find this "inadmissible phonologically." The -u- is an unetymological insertion. In law, "That state of a moral agent which results from his commission of a crime or an offense wilfully or by consent" [Century Dictionary], from early 14c. Then use for "sense of guilt," considered erroneous by purists, is first recorded 1680s. Guilt by association recorded by 1919.
- guilt (v.)
- "to influence someone by appealing to his sense of guiltiness," by 1995, from guilt (n.). Related: Guilted; guilting. Old English also had a verbal form, gyltan (Middle English gilt), but it was intransitive and meant "to commit an offense, act criminally."
Antonym
Example
- 1. Self-discipline is not about guilt or shame or religion .
- 2. The profession itself is suffering from guilt and rancour .
- 3. David internalized his guilt and it physically affected his body .
- 4. Have a cheating hookup . The guilt wrecked my self-esteem .
- 5. Mr strauss-kahn 's innocence or guilt will be determined in court .