culprit

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person responsible for a crime, wrongdoing, or problem

   Investigators identified the culprit from the security footage.

2. 2
   noun

   the thing that causes a problem or undesirable result

   A loose connection was the culprit behind the intermittent power loss.

From the Anglo-Norman legal abbreviation cul. prit, representing culpable: prest, roughly guilty: ready to prove our case. English speakers reinterpreted the formula as a noun for the accused person; Latin culpa, meaning blame, influenced its later associations.

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External links

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