Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Law The corroborating evidence that shows that a crime has been committed, other than a confession or an alleged accomplice's statement.
- noun A corpse.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun law The body of the victim
- noun law The evidence that a crime has occurred.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the body of evidence that constitute the offence; the objective proof that a crime has been committed (sometimes mistakenly thought to refer to the body of a homicide victim)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[New Latin corpus dēlictī : Latin corpus, body, collection of facts + Latin dēlictī, genitive of dēlictum, crime.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From New Latin, from Latin corpus ("body") dēlictī ("of crime").
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Examples
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rolig commented on the word corpus delicti
Latin: "the body of offense". In law, this refers to the facts and circumstances constituting a breach of the law. In popular usage, however, this can mean the concrete evidence, such as a corpse.
March 6, 2009
qroqqa commented on the word corpus delicti
Delictum "offence, transgression" is from the past participle of delinquere "transgress", so is related to 'delinquent'. And, if it comes to that, to 'leave' and 'eleven'.
March 6, 2009