impeachment

Meaning

Noun

• The act of calling into question or challenging the accuracy or propriety of something.
• The state of being impeached.
• Hindrance; impediment; obstruction.

Origin

• From Middle English empechement ("hindrance, impediment, obstacle, obstruction; legal accusation or charge; act of calling into question or discrediting; challenge to a claim or right"), and thence either:
• from Middle English empechen, empeschen, empesche, enpechen, impechen (from Anglo-Norman empecher, Old French empechier, empeechier) + -ment; or
• from Old French empechement, empeechement, empeschement (modern French empêchement ("impediment, obstacle")), from empeechier, empescher + -ment.
• The English word is analysable as impeach + -ment.
• Old French empechier, empeechier and empescher (compare modern French empêcher) are derived from Late Latin impedicāre ("to catch; to entangle"), present active infinitive of Latin impedicō ("to entangle; to fetter"), from im- (variant of in-) + pedica (from pēs, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ped- ("to step, walk; to fall, stumble")) + -ō.
• In senses 1.2 (“accusation that a person has committed a crime”) and 1.3 (“act of impeaching or charging a public official with misconduct”), the word has been used in place of Latin impetere, the present active infinitive of impetō.