culprit
UK[ˈkʌlprɪt]US[ˈkʌlprɪt]
n
a person who is responsible for a crime or other misdeed.
n
the cause of a problem or defect.
Etymology
the word 'culprit' has a fascinating origin in english legal shorthand. it emerged in the late 17th century from the anglo-french phrase "culpable: prest d'averrer notre bille," meaning "(you are) guilty: (we are) ready to prove our indictment," spoken by the clerk of the crown to a prisoner who pleaded "not guilty." the abbreviation "cul. prist" or "culprit" was written to record this exchange. over time, this courtroom notation was misinterpreted as a label for the accused party itself. thus, a procedural formula condensed into a single noun, shifting from a declaration of the state's readiness to prove guilt to denoting the person accused or responsible for an offense.
Analysis
the word 'culprit' is a fossilized legal abbreviation from anglo-french. it does not break cleanly into productive morphemes in modern english based on its current spelling. its components are historically from latin 'culpa' (blame, fault) and old french 'prest' or 'prist' (ready), but these forms are not direct substrings of 'culprit'.
Examples
the police are still searching for the culprit of the robbery.
after investigating the engine failure, the mechanics identified a faulty wire as the culprit.
in the story, the real culprit turned out to be the least suspected character.