culprit
noun
[ ˈkʌlprɪt ]
• a person who is responsible for a crime or other misdeed.
• "the car's front nearside door had been smashed in but the culprits had fled"
Similar:
guilty party,
offender,
wrongdoer,
person responsible,
criminal,
malefactor,
lawbreaker,
felon,
delinquent,
reprobate,
evil-doer,
transgressor,
sinner,
baddie,
bad guy,
wrong 'un,
crook,
crim,
malfeasant,
misfeasor,
infractor,
miscreant,
Origin:
late 17th century (originally in the formula Culprit, how will you be tried?, said by the Clerk of the Crown to a prisoner pleading not guilty): perhaps from a misinterpretation of the written abbreviation cul. prist for Anglo-Norman French Culpable: prest d'averrer notre bille ‘(You are) guilty: (We are) ready to prove our indictment’; in later use influenced by Latin culpa ‘fault, blame’.
