Why does crooked mean dishonest? Follow the name back to its source. #words #vocabulary
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WORD STORY: crooked.
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WORD STORY: crooked. Meaning: Having or marked by bends or angles; not straight or aligned. Here’s the history behind that meaning.
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EARLIER: Start here. Crooked was formed from the verb crook, to bend, and first described what was curved rather than straight. Its dishonest sense is also medieval, using physical straightness as a model for right conduct.
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WHAT CHANGED: The link to today. English repeatedly maps geometry onto morality: straight and right suggest correctness, while bent, twisted, and crooked suggest corruption.
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WHAT CHANGED: The link to today. A crooked official is therefore not named after a shepherd's crook; both senses arise from the more basic idea of bending.
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