defalcation
noun
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"The tea table shall be set forth every morning with its customary bill of fare, and without any manner of defalcation." No reference to embezzlement there! This line, from a 1712 issue of Spectator magazine, is an example of the earliest, and now archaic, sense of defalcation, which is simply defined as "curtailment." Defalcation is ultimately from the Latin word falx, meaning "sickle," and it has been a part of English since the 1400s. It was used early on of monetary cutbacks (as in "a defalcation in their wages"), and by the 1600s it was used of most any sort of financial reversal (as in "a defalcation of public revenues"). Not till the mid-1800s, however, did defalcation refer to breaches of trust that cause a financial loss, or, specifically, to embezzlement.
Cite this Entry
“Defalcation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defalcation. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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defalcation
noun
Note: Defalcation does not necessarily involve culpability or misconduct.
S. L. Lynchearlier, deduction, lessening, shortcoming, from Medieval Latin defalcatio discounting of debt, from defalcare to cut down, deduct, from Latin de- away from + falc-, falx sickle
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