▪ I. guilt, n.
(gɪlt)
Forms: 1 gylt, irreg. gielt, 1, 2, 4 gelt, 2–5 gult(e, 2–6 gilt, 2–7 gylt(e, 3 Orm. gillt, 3–5 gilte, 4 gelte, 4, 6 guilte, (gelthe, gylthe), 6– guilt.
[OE. gylt str. masc.:—prehistoric type *gulti-z; related to next vb.
No equivalent forms are known in the other Teut. langs. The connection commonly assumed with the OTeut. root *geld-, gald-, guld-, to pay, yield, is inadmissible phonologically, and its apparent plausibility with regard to sense disappears on examination. From the fact that OE. gylt renders L. debitum in the Lord's Prayer and in Matt. xviii. 27, and that is gyltiȝ renders debet in Matt. xxiii. 18, it has been inferred that the n. had a primary sense ‘debt’, of which there seems to be no real evidence, though OE. scyld, G. schuld, have developed the sense of ‘guilt’ from that of ‘debt’.]
† 1. A failure of duty, delinquency; offence, crime, sin. Obs. (Cf. 5 b.)
| 971 Blickl. Hom. 193 Þonne onfoþ hie forᵹifnesse ealra heora gylta æt urum Drihtne. a 1000 Kentish Ps. I. 39 (Gr.) Geltas ᵹeclansa, þa ðe ic on aldre æfre ᵹefremede. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. vi. 12 Forgyf us ure gyltas [c 1160 Hatton geltas]. c 1050 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia VIII. 320 Þæt we ne ᵹefremmon gylta æniᵹne. a 1175 Cott. Hom. 223 Se lichame is deadlic þurh adames gylt. c 1200 Ormin 15873 Iff þeȝȝ muȝhenn turrnenn hemm To betenn þeȝȝre gilltess. 12.. Paternoster in Rel. Ant. I. 282 Forȝif us oure gultes. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2409 So ðinked euerilc wis man..ðe of adames gilte muneð. 1340 Ayenb. 15 Þe ten hornes of þe beste betokneþ þe geltes of þe ten hestes of our lhorde. a 1400–50 Alexander 3213 (Dublin MS.) Þat Sloghen so þair souerent þat neuer þaim gilt made. 1401 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 39 For which gilts and defaults it were worthy that the order..were fordone. |
† 2. Responsibility for an action or event; the ‘fault’
of (some person). (In
OE. const. genitive.)
| 11.. O.E. Chron. an. 1048 (Laud. MS.) Eustatius hæfde ᵹecydd þam cynge þet hit sceolde beon mare gylt þære burhwaru þonne his. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 257 It is for men ben nouȝt worthy To haue the grace of god and no gylte of the pope. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 317 If þe sarsyn ouercompþ [sic] him þare certis ȝe bereþ þe gilt. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 122 She taketh upon her self the gilt. a 1400–50 Alexander 2384 It was þe gilt all of þe gome & noȝt of þe gud lord. 1671 A. Behn Forc'd Marriage i. i, I shall grow angry, and believe your pride Would put the guilt off on your modesty. |
† 3. Desert (
of a penalty);
esp. in phrase
without guilt, without having done anything to deserve one's fate, innocently.
Obs.| c 1275 Passion our Lord 342 in O.E. Misc. 47 Nenne gult of deþe ich on hym i-seo. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. v. 75 With-oute gult, god wot gat ich thys scathe. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xv. 67 Godd þan had done agayne his riȝtwisnesse for to suffer swilk ane innocent die withouten gilt. c 1430 Life St. Kath. (1884) 51 Seynge þat þe kepers scholde haue be turmented wyth oute gylte. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. 39904 He fand ane subtill wyle, But ony gilt how he suld them begyle. a 1625 Boys Wks. (1629–30) 268 Shee..abideth vnder the wrath of God, horror of conscience, guilt of death and hell. |
4. The fact of having committed, or of being guilty of, some specified or implied offence; guiltiness.
† Formerly (now
poet.)
const. of.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 129 If a clerke men founde in his lond þat reft, þorgh slauhter or wounde, or þorgh oþer theft, Men suld schewe his guilte in þe courte of lay. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 165 Iustinianus Cesar was prived of þe ioye of his kyngdom for gilt of mysbyleve. c 1450 Myrc 1100 Hast thow forsake þyn owne gult, And on a-noþer þe blame I-pult? 1622 Bacon Hen. VII 196 It was neither guilt of Crime, nor reason of State, that could quench the Enuie that was vpon the King for this Execution. a 1715 Burnet Own Time iv. (1724) I. 636 He in his deposition said somewhat that brought Sir Hugh Cambell and his son under the guilt of treason. 1833 Tennyson Lady Clara Vere de Vere 43 The guilt of blood is at your door. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 324 Positive proof of his guilt could not be adduced. 1891 Speaker 2 May 532/2 He has put the believers in the guilt of Richard III in a dilemma. |
5. a. The state (meriting condemnation and reproach of conscience) of having wilfully committed crime or heinous moral offence; criminality, great culpability.
| c 1510 More Picus Wks. 32 Spare vs wretches, and washe awaye our gilt, That we be not by thy iuste anger spilt. 1596 Spenser F.Q. v. v. 48 That his guilt the greater may appeare..I will a while with his first folly beare. 1654 Hammond Fundamentals xvi. 167 These..are taken away, the possibility of guilt, and the possibility of innocence. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 35 ¶1 Several of my intimate Friends are in the Guilt. 1737 Whiston Josephus, Antiq. Dissert. ii, Most of which seem to have had no other peculiar guilt upon them than that common to soldiers in war. 1757 Smollett Reprisal Prol., No guilt attends a fact involuntary. 1785 Burke Corr. (1844) III. 39 Guilt resides in the intention. 1813 Byron Giaour 1243 But Heaven in wrath would turn away, If Guilt should for the guiltless pray. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xiii, She never saw the child of her love stand before her doubly dishonoured, by guilt and by falsehood. 1876 Mozley Univ. Serm. viii. 176 Guilt is the direct consequence of a crime having been committed. |
b. (With
a and
pl.) An instance, kind, or degree of guilt.
rare.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems ix. 135 Of every gilt, and wicket govirnance, I cry The mercy, and lasar to repent. 1605 Shakes. Lear iii. ii. 57 Close pent-vp guilts, Riue your concealing Continents. 1679 Gentl. Call. Pref. §8 'Twas amongst the Jews a Capital Guilt to curse a Parent. 1685 South Serm. (1843) II. xvii. 281 The pardon of a guilt (too big for the common measures of pardon). 1702 Rowe Tamerl. v. i. 2115 Nor has my Soul One unrepented Guilt upon remembrance. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 139 ¶1 Rapine, Murder, and all the Guilts that attend War when it is unjust. 1864 H. H. Brownell War Lyrics (1866) 21 Ah ever..In the crash of falling crime Some lesser guilt must share. |
c. Conduct involving guilt; heinous sin or crime.
| 1729 Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 127 It [self-deceit] is itself the greatest of all guilt in proportion to the degree it prevails. 1780 Newgate Cal. V. 120 The life of this man seems to have been one chain of guilt from the cradle to the gallows. 1819 Byron Juan ii. cxxvii, He was a Greek, and on his isle had built..A very handsome house from out his guilt. |
¶ d. Misused for ‘sense of guilt’.
| 1690–1 Tillotson Serm. xxxviii. (1735) I. 355 Guilt being nothing else but trouble arising in our minds, from a consciousness of having done contrary to what we are verily perswaded was our Duty. 1932 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Apr. 377 The author considers that all individuals nourish large numbers of fads, fancies, hypothetical and unreal ‘guilts’. 1966 Listener 10 Mar. 341/2 If he [sc. a child] does take something that he knows is not his property, and if you detect him at it you will often find guilt written all over his face. |
6. a. In legal use: The state of being regarded as justly liable to penalty.
rare.
| 1765 Blackstone Comm. Introd. §2. 46 Here it is impossible that the party could foresee that an action, innocent when it was done, should be afterwards converted to guilt by a subsequent law. 1858 J. Kent Comm. Amer. Law (ed. 9) I. 157 If a ship has contracted guilt by a breach of blockade, the offence is not discharged until the end of the voyage. |
b. Phr.
guilt by association (see
quot. 1964).
| 1941 Z. Chafee Free Speech in U.S. (1942) xi. 359 The doctrine of guilt by association is abhorrent enough in the criminal and deportation fields without being extended into the relation between lawyer and client. 1960 Listener 3 Mar. 415/1 He introduced those concepts of guilt by association and guilt by intention which have always been a feature of political trials and disputes in Russia. 1964 Gould & Kolb Dict. Soc. Sci. 298/2 Another form of legal usage comprehends the idea of guilt by association or guilt attaching to an individual through his relation or connection with a group of persons who are charged with a violation of a legally established line of conduct. |
7. attrib. and
Comb., as
guilt-feeling,
guilt-sense;
guilt-born,
guilt-concealing,
guilt-formed,
guilt-free,
guilt-haunted,
guilt-imbrued,
guilt-laden,
guilt-reeking,
guilt-ridden,
guilt-sick,
guilt-stained,
guilt-stricken,
guilt-won adjs. Also
guilt-complex (see
complex n. 3), a mental obsession with the idea of having done wrong;
† guiltwite [
OE. w{iacu}te penalty], penalty for commission of crime.
| 1813 Scott Rokeby iii. xiv, *Guilt-born Excess the goblet drain'd. |
| 1927 Henderson & Gillespie Text-bk. Psychiatry ix. 198 *Guilt complexes..also lead to compensating phantasies. 1929 A. Adler Probl. Neurosis vi. 84 The complicated state of self-accusation and repentance at the same time, which we call a guilt complex, which is always a superiority-striving on the useless side of life. 1960 Koestler Lotus & Robot 276 Auden's mea culpa..might serve as a motto for the Western guilt complex towards Asia. |
| 1730–46 Thomson Autumn 1174 Beneath the cloud of *guilt-concealing night. |
| 1951 ― Age of Longing i. i. 25 We can only achieve a constructive attitude if we rid ourselves of fallacious *guilt-feelings about the past. 1963 A. Heron Towards Quaker View of Sex ii. 18 Without the special guilt-feelings which her upbringing has so often laid on the girl, man and maid are..on equal terms. |
| 1830 Scott Demonol. x. 364, I cannot forbear giving you another instance of a *guilt-formed phantom. |
| 1960 Koestler Lotus & Robot ii. viii. 198 The permitted, and therefore *guilt-free, pleasure of saké and concubinage. |
| 1952 S. Spender Shelley 11 His friendship with Hogg now entered a new and perhaps *guilt-haunted phase. |
| 1845 Hirst Poems 69 Others, sweet and dove-like;—others, regal:—Others, *guilt-imbrued. |
| 1944 Mind LIII. 847 The repressed *guilt-laden hatred, originally felt towards the mother for checking a certain impulse, may be extended or diverted to that impulse itself. 1951 S. Spender World within World 31, I was intensely self-conscious, guilt-laden, undisciplined, curious, inspired, and naïve. |
| 1811 Shelley Tear ii. 4 Patriotism red with his *guilt-reeking gore. |
| 1960 Koestler Lotus & Robot 280, I accepted it as a truism, as most *guilt-ridden Westerners do. |
| 1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Jan. 37/1 Unless the distinction is clearly made and recognized between objective and subjective guilt (between ‘guilt’ and ‘*guilt-sense’), the significance of the former may all too easily escape the attention of the analyst. |
| a 1625 Beaum. & Fl. Custom Country iv. i, A *guilt-sick conscience. |
| a 1822 Shelley Posth. Fragm. Marg. Nicholson 82 At the orphan's sigh..Totters the fabric of thy *guilt-stained throne. |
| 1899 E. M. Aveling tr. Marx's Secret Diplomatic Hist. 18th Cent. v. 74 Whether we consider her [sc. Russia's] power..as the mere vision of the *guilt-stricken consciences of the European peoples—the question remains the same. |
| 964 in Birch Cart. Sax. (1893) III. 379 Debitum transgressionis et penam delicti quæ Anglice dicitur Ofersæwnesse et *Gyltwyte. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 95 Gultwite amendes for trespas. 1607 Cowell Interpr., Gultwit. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Gyltwite..Gultwit (Sax. Law-Term). |
▪ II. † guilt, v. Obs. Forms: 1
gyltan, 2–3
gulten (
y),
Orm. gilltenn, 4
gilte(n, 4–5
gilt, 5–6
gylte, 6
guilt.
pa. tense 2–4
gulte, 3–5
gilte, 4
gilted,
-id, 5
gylted.
pa. pple. 2
igult, 4–6
gilt, 5
gult, 5
gilted, 6
guilted.
[OE. gyltan:—prehistoric type *gultjan; related to prec. n.] 1. intr. To commit an offence or trespass, to sin.
| c 825, c 897, c 1000 [see guilting ppl. a.]. c 1020 Rule St. Benet. vi. (Logeman) 25 Ic sæde ic ᵹehealde weᵹas mine þæt ic na gylte on minre tungan. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 83 Þa com þes Mon, he nefre ne gulte. a 1200 Moral Ode 27 Al to lome ich habbe igult a werke and o worde often. a 1250 Owl & Night. 1521 Ther-fore the were gulte That leof is over wummon to pulte. 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 550 Michel gilte ȝe, gome, bi ȝour godus falce. a 1400–50 Alexander 472 Þou has giltid, bot noȝt gretly. 1530 Palsgr. 566/1, I gylte, I faulte or commyt a trespasse (Lydgate). |
b. Const.
against, rarely
to (a person, a law). Also with
dat. of person, and
acc. of thing (neuter
pron.).
| c 1200 Ormin 5142 Godd itt te forrbedeþþ To gilltenn ohht onȝæness himm. 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 384 We ne gilte noht god no no gome here. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. viii. 151 Alle thuse rybaudes that repenten hem sore, That euere thei gulte aȝens the. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiv. xxviii. (Tollem. MS.), In þoo mawmetes Salomon trespasid and giltid his owne God. a 1400–50 Alexander 2430 Þare as he gilt me agayns & I him gradid haue. 1414 Brampton Penit. Ps. xxvi. (Percy Soc.) 10 Graunte me grace..Thi lawe to understande..That I nevere gylte aȝens itt. 1423 Jas. I Kingis Q. xxxviii, Quhat haue I gilt to him or doon offense, That I am thrall, and birdis gone at large? c 1450 Lonelich Grail l. 658 Why hast þou thus here now wrowht, with goddis peple that Gylted the nowht? c 1500 Lancelot 699 Qwhat haue y gilt, allace! or qwhat deseruit? |
2. [
f. the
n.]
trans. To render guilty. In
quot. refl.| 1553 N. Grimalde Cicero's Offices iii. (1558) 121 Hath he then guilted himself of murder? |
▸
trans. colloq. (chiefly
U.S.).
= guilt-trip v. 2. Also with
out.
| 1971 Off our Backs Nov. 3/1 Conflicts arose over the importance of women's caucuses..and over whether women's studies should be taught in the context of women's liberation. When this happened, however,..people were guilted into being practical. 1984 N.Y. Times 25 Nov. i. 78/6 Dr. Scarr hopes that ‘Mother Care/Other Care’..will be read not only by mothers and potential mothers, but also by grandparents,..so they'll stop guilting their daughters. 1996 Today's Parent (Electronic ed.) Oct. 100 The next day some older friends of mine guilted me out about it so much that I went to my parents and confessed. 2001 J. Franzen Corrections 93 He weathered a spasm of hatred of Denise for having guilted him into inviting his parents to lunch. |
▪ III. guilt obs. form of
gilt n. and v.
▪ IV. guilt(e, -ed obs. ff.
gilt,
gilted ppl. adjs.