Offender

How to spell offender

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce offender

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does offender mean?

1. nounA person who breaks a law or rule, or who does something wrong.

Offender in a sentence

• The court treated each first-time offender with some leniency.

• A repeat offender faces a much longer sentence.

Where does offender come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows out of the verb 'offend', which English took in the 1300s from the Old French 'offendre', itself drawn from the Latin 'offendere'. That Latin verb literally meant 'to strike against' or 'to dash against', built from 'ob-' meaning 'against' and 'fendere' meaning 'to strike or hit'. The same 'fendere' root sits hidden inside 'defend' (to strike away from) and 'fend', so the family is all about hitting and warding off blows. From the idea of striking against something came the sense of striking against the law or against another person's feelings, and 'offender' was formed by adding the agent suffix '-er', giving 'one who offends'. The doubled 'ff' simply preserves the assimilated Latin prefix, where 'ob-' shifted to 'of-' before the 'f' sound, and that is the spot writers most often trip over.

How the word is built

• offend (from Latin offendere: to strike against)
• -er (agent noun: one who does)