Etymology

defalcation

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Today it means: The act of cancelling part of a claim by deducting a smaller claim which the claimant owes to the defendant. Full definition →

Medieval Latin dēfalcātiōnem ← Latin dē
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromdē“off”
  2. Medieval Latin · derived fromdēfalcātiōnem
  3. English todaydefalcation

Late 15th century, from Medieval Latin dēfalcātiōnem, accusative singular of dēfalcātiō (literally “cutting off, lopping off with a sickle”), nominalization of dēfalcō, from Latin dē (“off”) + falx (“sickle, scythe, pruning hook”), from which also English falcate (“sickle-shaped”). By surface analysis, defalcate + -ion (“the act of”).

Words from the same roots

Latindē all →

deliverdernierde bene essede dictodefaildefalcatede redeterration

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.