Inculpate comes from Late Latin inculpatus, past participle of inculpare ('to blame'), from in- ('in, on') + culpa ('fault, blame'). The etymological trail includes Latin inculpare and Latin culpa. As a verb, inculpate means to accuse or incriminate; to show as guilty. The same family is visible in derived forms such as inculpation and inculpatory and related forms such as culpable, exculpate, culprit, and culpability. Morphologically, the word is built from the elements named in its history, so the modern form preserves a visible compound, prefix, or suffix structure.