impeachment

Facing impeachment (sense 1.3) by the United States Senate for his conduct in the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon decided to resign. Here he is pictured giving his farewell speech to White House staff on August 9, 1974.

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”),[1] and thence either:

• from Old French empechement, empeechement, empeschement (“obstacle”) (modern French empêchement (“impediment, obstacle”)),[2] from empeechier (“to fetter; to hinder”), empescher (“to inhibit, prevent”) + -ment (suffix forming nouns from verbs); or
• from Middle English empechen, empeschen, empesche, enpechen, impechen (“to cause to get stuck; of a ship: to run aground; to block, obstruct; to hinder, impede; to prevent; to interfere with, harm; to criticize, disparage; to bring charges against; to formally accuse of treason or another high crime”) (from Anglo-Norman empecher, Old French empechier, empeechier)[3] + -ment (suffix forming action nouns, concrete nouns, and nouns indicating a result or a condition or state).[4]

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 (“fetter, shackle; snare, trap”) (from pēs (“foot”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to step, walk; to fall, stumble”)) + -ō.[5]

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 (“to assail, attack, rush upon”).[2][5]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpiːtʃmənt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /imˈpitʃmənt/

• Audio (AU)

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• Hyphenation: im‧peach‧ment

impeachment (countable and uncountable, plural impeachments)

1. (countable) The act of calling into question or challenging the accuracy or propriety of something.

   Synonyms: deprecation, depreciation, discrediting, disparagement

   • 1952 September 15, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, “The Dark Island”, in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, London: Geoffrey Bles, OCLC 2805288; republished New York, N.Y.: Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1970, →ISBN, page 152:

     And here is as great an adventure as ever I heard of, and here, if we turn back, no little impeachment of all our honours.

   1. (countable, law) A demonstration in a court of law, or before another finder of fact, that a witness was ingenuine before, and is therefore less likely to tell the truth now.
   2. (countable, law, Britain) An accusation that a person has committed a crime against the state, such as treason.
   3. (countable, law, chiefly US) The act of impeaching or charging a public official with misconduct, especially if serious, often with the aim of having the official dismissed from office.
2. (uncountable) The state of being impeached.
3. (uncountable, archaic) Hindrance; impediment; obstruction.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene vi], page 81, column 2:

     Turne thee back, / And tell thy King, I doe not ſeeke him now, / But could be willing to march on to Callice, / Without impeachment: […]

   • 1732, Flavius Josephus; William Whiston, transl., A Compleat Collection of the Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus Faithfully Translated from the Original Greek. […], London: Printed and sold by D. Henry, […], OCLC 837132843; republished as chapter VIII, in The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus; Translated […] Containing Six Books of the Antiquities of the Jews, volume II, New York, N.Y.: Printed for Evert Duyckinck, John Tiebout, and M. & W. Ward, 1810, OCLC 1018068900, book IX (Containing the Interval of 157 Years. [From the Death of Ahab to the Captivity of the Ten Tribes.]), paragraph 1, page 253:

     Now Hazael, king of Syria, fought against the Israelites, and their king Jehu, and spoiled the eastern parts of the country beyond Jordan, […] and this without impeachment from Jehu, who made no haste to defend the country when it was under this distress: […]

• empeachment (obsolete)

• impeachment on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “impeachment” (US) / “impeachment” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.

English impeachment

• IPA^(key): /imˈpit͡ʃmen/, [ĩmˈpit͡ʃmẽn]

impeachment m (plural impeachments)

1. impeachment (political trial) (especially in reference to the political systems of English-speaking countries)

   Synonyms: destitución, impugnación

   • 2000, El asesinato jurídico de Alan García (5 de abril de 1992), Centro de Estudios Enrique Tierno Galván:

     En consecuencia, el impeachment británico es en la práctica un verdadero proceso penal que se lleva dentro del Parlamento.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)