Meanings
- obsoleteuncountableGuilt; transgression.
Somhampton was beſt truſted in that, for he had been verſed in queſtions and anſwers, under the nocency of Eſſex Treaſon; […]
1656, William Sanderson, “The Reign and Death of King James, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, the Firſt, &c.”, in A Compleat History of the Lives and Reigns of Mary Queen of Scotland, And of Her Son and Succeſſor, James The Sixth, King of Scotland; […] , London, page 5242 more examples
Firſt, Becauſe the Commiſſioners had a Power to declare whether the Lands had been forfeited or not, […] then they would make no Declaration of the Nocency or Innocency of the Perſons holding the Lands, […]
1734, Jeffrey Gilbert, “Devit, Leſſee of Cowper, verſus the College of Dublin, in Ejectment”, in Reports of Cases in Equity, Argued and Decreed in the Courts of Chancery and Exchequer, Chiefly in the Reign of King George I, […] E. and R. Nutt, and R. Gosling, for R. Goſling, page 247He inſiſted, that it was moſt agreeable to Law, as well as moſt equal for the Subject, that the Nocency or Innocency of the Iriſh ſhould be tried by the Common-Law, where every Perſon would meet with a fair Trial by Juries of their Neighbours; […]
1757, Walter Harris, Fiction unmasked; or, an answer to a Dialogue lately publiſhed by a Popiſh Phyſician, and pretended to have passed between a Diſſenter and a Member of the Church of Ireland; […] , Dublin: […] William Williamson, page 181
Origin
- Latinnocentia“guilt, transgression”
- Englishnocency
Learned borrowing from Latin nocentia (“guilt, transgression”), from nocēns (“harmful, guilty”). Doublet of nuisance.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
nocency. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nocency
“nocency.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nocency. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nocency,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nocency.
Source: nocency on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.