suborn

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English

WOTD – 29 May 2023

Etymology

PIE word
*upó

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman suburner, subhorner, and Middle French suborner, subourner (“to induce (someone) to commit a crime (specifically perjury) or wrongdoing”) (modern French suborner (“to suborn; to bribe”)), and from its etymon Latin subōrnāre, the present active infinitive of subōrnō (“to incite, instigate, suborn; to instruct one for a secret purpose; to adorn, dress; to equip, furnish, provide; to make one appear as (something)”), from sub- (prefix meaning ‘under’) + ōrnō (“to equip, furnish, provide; to adorn, decorate, ornament”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- (“to put together, fit; to fix; to slot”)).

cognates

Pronunciation

Verb

suborn (third-person singular simple present suborns, present participle suborning, simple past and past participle suborned) (transitive)

  1. (also figuratively) To induce (someone) to commit an unlawful or malicious act, especially in a corrupt manner.
    1. (specifically, criminal law) To induce (someone, such as a witness) to commit perjury, for example by making a false accusation or giving false evidence.
      • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande , Dublin: Societie of Stationers, , →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland  (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: Society of Stationers, Hibernia Press, y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC, page 169:
        [Y]ou shall finde their tongues chayned to another mans trencher, and as it were, Knights of the Post, suborned to say, sweare and stare the uttermost they can, as those that passe not what they say, nor with what face they say it, so they say no truth.
      • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 80, column 2:
        By heauen (fond vvretch) yͧ knovvſt not vvhat thou ſpeak'ſt, / Or elſe thou art ſuborn'd againſt his honor / In hatefull practiſe: […]
      • 1634, Robert Sanderson, “ The Third Sermon. At the Assises at Nottingham in the Year 1634. at the Request of Robert Mellish Esq; then High-Sheriff of that County.”, in XXXIV Sermons. , 5th edition, London: for A. Seil, and are to be sold by G. Sawbridge, , published 1671, →OCLC, paragraph 22, page 290:
        Thou that bribeſt a corrupt Officer, ſuborneſt a perjured vvitneſs, procureſt a packt Jury, […] couldſt thou be patient thy ſelf to be vvreſted out of thy ovvn apparent right by ſuch engines?
      • 1711 September 26 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “SATURDAY, September 15, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 171; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 391:
        [I]n the heat of their quarrel there came in a witness suborned by some of Mariamne's enemies, who accused her to the king [Herod the Great] of a design to poison him.
        The spelling has been modernized.
      • 1819, W[illia]m Oldnall Russell, “Of Indictable Offences”, in A Treatise on Crimes and Misdemeanors. , volume I, London, Dublin: for Joseph Butterworth and Son, ; and J. Cooke, , →OCLC, book I, page 63:
        [A]n attempt to suborn a person to commit perjury, upon a reference to the judges, was unanimously holden by them to be a misdemeanor.
      • 1864, Charles Kingsley, “Lecture V. Dietrich’s End.”, in The Roman and the Teuton: A Series of Lectures Delivered before the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 146:
        Boethius, again, says that the Gothic courtiers hated him, and suborned branded scoundrels to swear away his life and that of the senate, because he had opposed 'the hounds of the palace,' Amigast, Trigulla, and other greedy barbarians.
  2. To achieve (some result; specifically, perjury) in a corrupt manner.
    • 1659, Samuel Butler, “Two Speeches Made in the Rump-Parliament, when It was Restor’d by the Officers of the Army in the Year 1659”, in R[obert] Thyer, editor, The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler, , volume I, London: J and R Tonson, , published 1759, →OCLC, page 303:
      [U]pon ſingle Perjuries ſuborned by themſelves they condemned Men unheard, and ſold their Eſtates vvithout ſuffering them to ſpeak for themſelves— […]
    • 1736 March 16 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Henry Fielding, Pasquin. A Dramatick Satire on the Times: , London: J. Watts , published 1736, →OCLC, Act I, page 9:
      [F]or my part, I vvould as ſoon ſuborn an Evidence at an Aſſize, as a Vote at an Election.
  3. (archaic)
    1. To procure or provide (something) secretly and often in a dishonest manner.
      • 1614–1615, Homer, “The Tenth Book of Homer’s Odysseys”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. , London: Rich Field , for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, , volume I, London: John Russell Smith, , 1857, →OCLC, page 238, lines 421–424:
        In a golden bowl / She then suborn'd a potion, in her soul / Deform'd things thinking; for amidst the wine / She mix'd her man-transforming medicine; […]
      • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 359–361:
        Firm we ſubſiſt, yet poſſible to ſwerve, / Since Reaſon not impoſſibly may meet / Some ſpecious object by the Foe ſubornd, […]
      • 1674 (date written), John Dryden, The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man: An Opera. , London: T N for Henry Herringman, , published 1677, →OCLC, Act V, page 43:
        Behold of ev'ry age; ripe manhood ſee, / Decrepit years, and helpleſs infancy: / Thoſe who, by lingring ſickneſs, loſe their breath; / And thoſe vvho, by deſpair, ſuborn their death: […]
      • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Cymon and Iphigenia, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, page 561:
        Be ready at my Call, my choſen fevv / VVith arms adminiſter'd ſhall aid thy Crevv. / Then entring unexpected vvill vve ſeize / Our deſtin'd Prey, from Men diſſolv'd in eaſe; / By VVine diſabled, unprepar'd for Fight; / And haſt'ning to the Seas ſuborn our Flight: […]
      • a. 1722, Matthew Prior, “Husband and Wife”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior , volume II, London: W Strahan, , published 1779, →OCLC, pages 169–170:
        From this curſt hour, the fraudful dame / Of ſacred Truth uſurps the name, / And, vvith a vile, perfidious mind, / Roams far and near, to chat mankind; / Falſe ſighs ſuborns, and artful tears, / And ſtarts vvith vain pretended fears; […]
      • 1981, Donald Kagan, “Sacrilege and Departure”, in The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition, Ithaca, N.Y., London: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, part 2 (The Sicilian Expedition), page 200:
        The informer Diocleides was hailed as savior of the city, crowned with a wreath, and taken in honor to the Prytaneum where he dined at public expense. In their excitement and gratitude the Athenians noted neither his attempt to suborn a bribe nor his delay in seeking public safety.
    2. To make use of (something), especially for corrupt or dishonest reasons.
      • 1649, J[ohn] Milton, “Vpon the Armies Surprisall of the King at Holmeby”, in ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ  , London: Matthew Simmons, , →OCLC, page 210:
        Nor is he onely content to ſuborne Divine Juſtice in his cenſure of vvhat is paſt, but he aſſumes the perſon of Chriſt himſelf to prognoſticate over us vvhat he vviſhes vvould come.
  4. (obsolete)
    1. To aid, assist, or support (something).
    2. To furnish or provide (something).
    3. To substitute (a thing) for something else, especially secretly and often in a dishonest manner.
      • 1592, Tho[mas] Nashe, Strange Newes, of the Intercepting Certaine Letters and a Convoy of Verses, , London: Iohn Danter, , →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, Illustrations of Early English Literature (Miscellaneous Tracts; Temp. Eliz. and Jac. I), volume II, London: Privately printed, , →OCLC, page 74:
        I wiſh unto thee all ſuperabundant increaſe of the ſingular gifts of abſurditie and vaine glory: […] in ſupplanting and ſetting aſide the true children of the Engliſh, and ſuborning inkehorne changlings in their ſteade; […]
        That is, substituting inkhorn (“obscurely scholarly”) words derived from other languages for ordinary English words.

Conjugation

Conjugation of suborn
infinitive (to) suborn
present tense past tense
1st-person singular suborn suborned
2nd-person singular suborn, subornest† suborned, subornedst†
3rd-person singular suborns, suborneth† suborned
plural suborn
subjunctive suborn suborned
imperative suborn —
participles suborning suborned

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ Compare “suborn, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “suborn, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Anagrams

Catalan

Etymology

Deverbal from subornar.

Pronunciation

Noun

suborn m (plural suborns)

  1. bribery
  2. bribe

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia