Etymology


innocent (adj.)
 -- innocentem "not guilty" + nocentem "to harm"

1) L. innocentem (nom. innocens) "not guilty, harmless, blameless," fromin- "not" (see in- (1))

2) nocentem (nom. nocens), prp. of nocere "to harm" (see noxious).


 Meaning "free from guilt of a specific crime or charge" is from late 14c. The earliest use was as a noun, "person who is innocent of sin or evil" (c.1200). The Holy Innocents (early 14c.) were the young children slain by Herod sfter the birth of Jesus (Matt. ii:16), "doing no evil, free from sin or guilt," from O.Fr. inocent "harmless; not guilty; pure" (11c.)



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The word innocent, or innocence, is taken from the Latin: innocentem and nocentem, together meaning harmless, or blameless to harm.  This word first appears in ancient times, referencing the slaughter of blameless children.  Over the ages, however, several other connotations have been added to this and changed its meaning when taken in different senses.  Several different interpretations of the meaning of innocence are:

1.the quality or state of being innocent freedom from sin ormoral wrong.

2.freedom from legal or specific wrong; guiltlessness: The prisoner proved his innocence.

3.simplicity; absence of guile or cunning; naiveté.

4.lack of knowledge or understanding.


5.harmlessness; innocuousness. 

These different meanings, whether they be spiritual, or physical, play different roles in each individuals life, as well as in the interpretation of different uses throughout time.  For example, the analogy of Jesus being the Lamb of God does not suggest that Jesus had a lack of knowledge, but was free from sin.  Likewise, someone might say that a cat is harmless because of its lack of knowledge or understanding, but a cat is not always harmless (ex. when is breaks or scratches something.)  All of these different interpretations of innocence require a person to think about exactly what they mean when they say something is innocent, and what other people mean when they do the same.  



"Innocence." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2012. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/innocence>.

3 comments:

  1. Nate, your sources for this page could be cleaned up a little by removing the repetition of the Online Etymology Dictionary. Also, your sources reference 'in' and 'nocentum,' you may want to change your analytic reference to 'nocentum' and 'innocentum' to represent the difference.

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  2. Your last paragraph does show the point that innocent can mean different things. I think you provided enough etymologies on the word innocent, and you analysis explains these definitions enough. Nice job!

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  3. You did a good job here showing the meanings of innocence but what is the history of the word. Other than that nice job.

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