accuser

English

Alternative forms

• accusor
• accusour (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English acuser, accusour, borrowed from Old French accusour, from Latin accūsātor, from accūsāre. Equivalent to accuse +‎ -er. Doublet of accusator.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈkju.zɚ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈkjuː.zə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːzə(ɹ)

Noun

accuser (plural accusers)

1. One who accuses; one who brings a charge of crime or fault.

   Antonym: accused

Derived terms

• accuseress
• accuser of the saints
• hackuser

 

Translations

one who accuses

• Albanian: paditës (sq) m
• Arabic: مُتَّهِم m (muttahim)
• Armenian: մեղադրող (hy) (meġadroġ)
• Belarusian: абвінава́ўца m or f (abvinaváŭca)
• Bulgarian: обвини́тел (bg) m (obvinítel), обвини́телка f (obvinítelka)
• Catalan: acusador (ca) m, acusadora (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 原告 (zh) (yuángào), 起訴人／起诉人 (zh) (qǐsùrén)

• Czech: žalobce m, žalobkyně f
• Danish: anklager (da) c
• Dutch: aanklager (nl) m, beschuldiger (nl) m
• Esperanto: akuzanto, akuzantino (female)
• Estonian: süüdistaja
• Finnish: syyttäjä (fi)
• French: accusateur (fr) m, accusatrice (fr) f
• Galician: acusador m, acusadora f
• German: Ankläger (de) m, Ankläger (de) f
• Greek: κατήγορος (el) m (katígoros)

  Ancient: κατήγορος m (katḗgoros)

• Hindi: अभियोक्ता (hi) m (abhiyoktā)
• Hungarian: vádló (hu)
• Ido: akuzanto (io), akuzero (io)
• Indonesian: penuduh (id)
• Italian: accusatore (it) m, accusatrice (it) f
• Japanese: 告発者 (こくはつしゃ, kokuhatsusha), 原告 (ja) (げんこく, genkoku), 告訴人 (こくそにん, kokusonin)
• Korean: 고소인 (ko) (gosoin), 비난자 (binanja), 원고 (ko) (won'go)
• Latin: accūsātor m, accūsātrīx f, crīminātor m, crīminātrīx f
• Macedonian: тужител m (tužitel), тужителка f (tužitelka), обвинител m (obvinitel), обвинителка f (obvinitelka), обвинувач m (obvinuvač) (colloquial), обвинувачка f (obvinuvačka) (archaic)
• Maori: kaiwhakapae
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: anklager m

• Persian: متهم (fa) (mottahem)
• Polish: oskarżyciel (pl) m, oskarżycielka f
• Portuguese: acusador (pt) m, acusadora f
• Romanian: acuzator (ro) m
• Russian: обвини́тель (ru) m (obvinítelʹ), обвини́тельница (ru) f (obvinítelʹnica)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ту̀жилац m, ту̀житељ m

  Roman: tùžilac (sh) m, tùžitelj (sh) m

• Slovak: žalobca m, žalobkyňa f
• Slovene: tožnik m, tožnica f
• Spanish: acusador (es) m, acusadora (es) f
• Swahili: mshtaki (sw)
• Swedish: anklagare (sv) c
• Tajik: айбдоркунанда (aybdorkunanda)
• Tatar: гаепләүче (tt) sg (ğayepläwçe), гаепләүчеләр pl (ğayepläwçelär)
• Ukrainian: обвинува́ч m (obvynuváč), обвинува́чка f (obvynuváčka)
• Uzbek: ayblovchi (uz)

References

• “accuser”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• accrues, accurse

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French accuser, from Old French acuser, accuser, borrowed from Latin accūsāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.ky.ze/
• Homophones: accusai, accusé, accusée, accusées, accusés, accusez

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

accuser

1. (transitive) to accuse
2. (transitive) to find fault with
   • 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, page 180:

     Emma portait sa lettre au bout du jardin... Rodolphe venait l’y chercher et en plaçait une autre, qu’elle accusait toujours d’être trop courte.

     Emma took her letter to the end of the garden... Rodolphe came and fetched it and put another in its place, which she always found fault with for being too short.

3. (intransitive, formal) to show; to reveal
4. (when used with ~ réception) to acknowledge receipt of something

Conjugation

Conjugation of accuser (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	accuser
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	accusant /a.ky.zɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		accusé /a.ky.ze/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	accuse /a.kyz/	accuses /a.kyz/	accuse /a.kyz/	accusons /a.ky.zɔ̃/	accusez /a.ky.ze/	accusent /a.kyz/
	imperfect	accusais /a.ky.zɛ/	accusais /a.ky.zɛ/	accusait /a.ky.zɛ/	accusions /a.ky.zjɔ̃/	accusiez /a.ky.zje/	accusaient /a.ky.zɛ/
	past historic2	accusai /a.ky.ze/	accusas /a.ky.za/	accusa /a.ky.za/	accusâmes /a.ky.zam/	accusâtes /a.ky.zat/	accusèrent /a.ky.zɛʁ/
	future	accuserai /a.kyz.ʁe/	accuseras /a.kyz.ʁa/	accusera /a.kyz.ʁa/	accuserons /a.kyz.ʁɔ̃/	accuserez /a.kyz.ʁe/	accuseront /a.kyz.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	accuserais /a.kyz.ʁɛ/	accuserais /a.kyz.ʁɛ/	accuserait /a.kyz.ʁɛ/	accuserions /a.ky.zə.ʁjɔ̃/	accuseriez /a.ky.zə.ʁje/	accuseraient /a.kyz.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	accuse /a.kyz/	accuses /a.kyz/	accuse /a.kyz/	accusions /a.ky.zjɔ̃/	accusiez /a.ky.zje/	accusent /a.kyz/
	imperfect2	accusasse /a.ky.zas/	accusasses /a.ky.zas/	accusât /a.ky.za/	accusassions /a.ky.za.sjɔ̃/	accusassiez /a.ky.za.sje/	accusassent /a.ky.zas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	accuse /a.kyz/	—	accusons /a.ky.zɔ̃/	accusez /a.ky.ze/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Related terms

• accusable
• accusateur
• accusatif
• accusation
• accusatoire
• accusatrice
• accuser coup
• accuser réception

 

Further reading

• “accuser”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Verb

accūser

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of accūsō

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French acuser, accuser, borrowed from Latin accuso, accusare.

Verb

accuser

1. to accuse

Conjugation

• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

Conjugation of accuser

infinitive	simple	accuser
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle1 or gerund2	simple	accusant
	compound	present participle or gerund of avoir + past participle
past participle		accusé
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		ie (i’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ilz, elles
(simple tenses)	present	accuse	accuses	accuse	accusons	accusez	accusent
	imperfect	accusois, accusoys	accusois, accusoys	accusoit, accusoyt	accusions, accusyons	accusiez, accusyez	accusoient, accusoyent
	past historic	accusa	accusas	accusa	accusasmes	accusastes	accuserent
	future	accuserai, accuseray	accuseras	accusera	accuserons	accuserez	accuseront
	conditional	accuserois, accuseroys	accuserois, accuseroys	accuseroit, accuseroyt	accuserions, accuseryons	accuseriez, accuseryez	accuseroient, accuseroyent
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que ie (i’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ilz, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	accuse	accuses	accuse	accusons	accusez	accusent
	imperfect	accusasse	accusasses	accusast	accusassions	accusassiez	accusassent
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	accuse	—	accusons	accusez	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The present participle was variable in gender and number until the 17th century (Anne Sancier-Château [1995], Une esthétique nouvelle: Honoré d'Urfé, correcteur de l'Astrée, p. 179). The French Academy would eventually declare it not to be declined in 1679.
2 The gerund was held to be invariable by grammarians of the early 17th century, and was usable with preposition en, as in Modern French, although the preposition was not mandatory (Anne Sancier-Château [1995], op. cit., p. 180).

Descendants

• French: accuser