fraud
UK[frɔːd]US[frɑːd]
n
the crime of deceiving people in order to gain something such as money or goods
n
a person or thing that is not what they claim to be
Etymology
the word 'fraud' entered english in the mid-14th century from the old french 'fraude', which itself derived from the latin 'fraus' (genitive 'fraudis'), meaning deceit, injury, or offense. the latin term is traced back to the proto-indo-european root dhreugh-, meaning to deceive or injure, which also gives us the old english 'dreogan' (to suffer) and the german 'trug' (deception). the semantic core has remained remarkably stable, moving from the general concept of harm through deceit in its ancient forms to the specific legal and commercial deceptions it denotes today. its journey from a broad indo-european concept of harm to a precise legal term in modern english illustrates the specialization of meaning that often accompanies words entering the legal lexicon.
Analysis
the word 'fraud' is a simplex loanword from old french. it cannot be meaningfully segmented into smaller morphemes within modern english spelling.
Examples
he was convicted of tax fraud.
the product was exposed as a fraud, promising results it could never deliver.
she felt a sense of fraud, pretending to be an expert in a field she knew little about.