peccant

Meanings

1. Of a person, etc.: that commits or has committed an offence or a sin; blameworthy, culpable, offending, sinful, sinning.
2. Of an action or thing: causing offence or sin; offensive, sinful.
3. Especially of humours of the body: diseased, unhealthy; also, causing disease.
4. Offending a norm, a rule, etc.; defective, faulty, wrong.

1. An offender; also, a sinner.

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Middle French peccant (“unhealthy”) (modern French peccant), and from its etymon Late Latin peccantis, the genitive singular of peccāns (“offending; sinning, transgressing”, adjective), from Latin peccāns (“wrongdoer”), a noun use of the active present participle of peccō (“to offend; to sin, transgress”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to fall; to stumble; to step; to walk”). As regards adjective sense 3 (“diseased, unhealthy”) as used in peccant humours, compare Middle French l'umeur peccante, humeurs peccantes, Old French humeurs pechantes, and Late Latin humores peccantes. The noun is derived from the adjective.