CRIM comes from the Latin words for “fault or crime” or “accusation.” It's obvious where the root shows up most commonly in English. A crime is an act forbidden by the government, which the government itself will punish you for, and for which you may be branded a criminal. A crime is usually more serious than a tort (see TORT), a “civil wrong” for which the wronged person must himself sue if he wants to get repaid in some way.
criminology: The study of crime, criminals, law enforcement, and punishment.
• His growing interest in criminology led him to become a probation officer. Criminology includes the study of all aspects of crime and law enforcement
—criminal psychology, the social setting of crime, prohibition and prevention, investigation and detection, capture and punishment. Thus, many of the people involved—legislators, social workers, probation officers, judges, etc.—could possibly be considered criminologists, though the word usually refers only to scholars and researchers.
decriminalize: To remove or reduce the criminal status of.
• An angry debate over decriminalizing doctor-assisted suicide raged all day in the statehouse.
Decriminalization of various “victimless crimes”—crimes that don't directly harm others, such as private gambling and drug-taking—has been recommended by conservatives as well as liberals, who often claim that it would ease the burden on the legal system, decrease the amount of money flowing to criminals, and increase personal liberty. Decriminalization is not the same as legalization; decriminalization may still call for a small fine (like a traffic ticket), and may apply only to use or possession of something, leaving the actual sale of goods or services illegal.
incriminate: To show evidence of involvement in a crime or a fault.
• The muddy tracks leading to and from the cookie jar were enough to incriminate them.
Testimony may incriminate a suspect by placing him at the scene of a crime, and incriminating evidence is the kind that strongly links him to it. But the word doesn't always refer to an actual crime. We can say, for instance, that a virus has been incriminated as the cause of a type of cancer, or that video games have been incriminated in the decline in study skills among young people.
recrimination: (1) An accusation in answer to an accusation made against oneself. (2) The making of such an accusation.
• Their failure to find help led to endless and pointless recriminations over responsibility for the accident.
Defending oneself from a verbal attack by means of a counterattack is as natural as physical self-defense. So a disaster often brings recriminations among those connected with it, and divorces and child-custody battles usually involve recriminations between husband and wife. An actual crime isn't generally involved, but it may be; when two suspects start exchanging angry recriminations after they've been picked up, it often leads to one of them turning against the other in court.
PROB comes from the Latin words for “prove or proof” and “honesty or integrity.” A probe, whether it's a little object for testing electrical circuits or a spacecraft headed for Mars, is basically something that's looking for evidence or proof. And probable originally described something that wasn't certain but might be “provable.”
approbation: A formal or official act of approving; praise, usually given with pleasure or enthusiasm.
• The senate signaled its approbation of the new plan by voting for it unanimously.
Approbation is a noun form of approve, but approbation is usually stronger than mere approval. An official commendation for bravery is an example of approbation; getting reelected to office by a wide margin indicates public approbation; and the social approbation received by a star quarterback in high school usually makes all the pain worthwhile.
probate: The process of proving in court that the will of someone who has died is valid, and of administering the estate of a dead person.
• When her father died, she thought she would be able to avoid probate, but she wasn't that lucky.
Ever since people have written wills, those wills have had to be proven genuine by a judge. Without a probate process, greedy acquaintances or relatives could write up a fake will stating that all the person's wealth belonged to them. To establish a will as genuine, it must generally be witnessed and stamped by someone officially licensed to do so (though wills have sometimes been approved even when they were just written on a piece of scrap paper, with no witnesses). Today we use probate more broadly to mean everything that's handled in probate court, a special court that oversees the handling of estates (the money and property left when someone dies), making sure that everyone eventually receives what is properly theirs.
probity: Absolute honesty and uprightness.
• Her unquestioned probity helped win her the respect of her fellow judges.
Probity is a quality the public generally hopes for in its elected officials but doesn't always get. Bankers, for example, have traditionally been careful to project an air of probity, even though banking scandals and bailouts have made this harder than ever. An aura of probity surrounds such public figures as Warren Buffett and Bill Moyers, men to whom many Americans would entrust their children and their finances.
reprobate: A person of thoroughly bad character.
• His wife finally left him, claiming he was a reprobate who would disappear for weeks at a time, gambling and drinking away all his money.
The related verb of reprobate is reprove, which originally, as the opposite of approve, meant “to condemn.” Thus, a reprobate, as the word was used in Biblical translations, was someone condemned to hell. But for many years reprobate has been said in a tone of joshing affection, usually to describe someone of doubtful morals but good humor. Shakespeare's great character Falstaff—a lazy, lying, boastful, sponging drunkard—is the model of a reprobate, but still everyone's favorite Shakespeare character. |
