Choice Word

I woke up early this morning with nothing to make me shy away from the day: on summer vacation, there's all the time you need and nothing to avoid. So I hopped right out of bed and headed downstairs.

Baking bread was first on my wanna-do list; my sourdough starter has been languishing in the fridge for a few busy weeks now. When I fetched the big Corningware bowl from its top shelf in the cupboard, I noticed flakes of dried dough around the top inside rim, remnants of the last time I baked. I knew immediately that I was the culprit because I always wash that bowl myself.

I love the word culprit. It comes from the Latin culpa, meaning fault or blame. There is a legend that the noun form comes from a misinterpretation of a 17th-century Norman legal document with the abbreviation "cul prist" short for Culpable: prest d'averrer notre bille (You are guilty; we are ready to prove our case).

And culprit is so much gentler than its synonyms perp, villain, or offender. Once when my nephew, Treat, was very young, no older than 5 or 6, we overheard him admit to his older brother that he had cheated at a game. "Okay, you caught me," he said. "I'm the culprit." Until then I don't think I'd ever heard the word used in conversation, but after that? 

I was a fan.