guilt: [OE] Guilt is a strictly English word; no other Germanic, or indeed Indo-European language has it, and it is not clear where it came from. One theory is that, like guild and yield, it comes ultimately from Germanic *gelth- ‘pay’, and originally meant ‘debt’. This is not generally accepted, but it is notable that the German word schuld means ‘debt’ as well as ‘guilt’, with ‘debt’ being the original sense.
guilt (n.)
Old English gylt "crime, sin, moral defect, failure of duty," of unknown origin, though some suspect a connection to Old English gieldan "to pay for, debt," but OED editors find this "inadmissible phonologically." The -u- is an unetymological insertion. In law, "That state of a moral agent which results from his commission of a crime or an offense wilfully or by consent" [Century Dictionary], from early 14c. Then use for "sense of guilt," considered erroneous by purists, is first recorded 1680s. Guilt by association recorded by 1919.
guilt (v.)
"to influence someone by appealing to his sense of guiltiness," by 1995, from guilt (n.). Related: Guilted; guilting. Old English also had a verbal form, gyltan (Middle English gilt), but it was intransitive and meant "to commit an offense, act criminally."
双语例句
1. The drinking and the guilt fed on each other.
酗酒和犯罪彼此助长。
来自柯林斯例句
2. His creative drive has been strangled by his sense of political guilt.
他的创造欲望已被他的政治负罪感扼杀了。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Too many women are like me, guilt ridden about the kids.
很多女人都像我一样，对孩子充满了内疚。
来自柯林斯例句
4. She wanted some admission of guilt from her father.
她期待她父亲能够认罪。
来自柯林斯例句
5. I was too weighed down by guilt to eat the sweet.
