guilt

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The unhappy feeling you have when you know you have done something wrong.

   She felt a deep sense of guilt for forgetting his birthday.

2. 2
   noun

   The fact of having broken the law or done something wrong.

   The jury had no doubt about the prisoner's guilt.

3. 3
   verb

   To make someone feel guilty so that they do what you want.

   He didn't want to go, but his wife guilted him into it.

From Middle English gilt, gult, from Old English gylt (“guilt, sin, offense, crime, fault”), of obscure origin, but possibly related with Old English ġieldan (“to pay, requite, punish”), whence yield. More specifically it could be connected with Proto-West Germanic *guldijā, whence Middle Low German gülde, Middle High German gülte (“debt, fee, financial duty”). However, neither the Old English stem form nor the -t (instead of -d) fit the continental form.

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