Aid and abet
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
To help, encourage or facilitate another person's wrongdoing, especially the commission of a crime. Strongly associated with criminal law, although it is also used humorously for helping with minor mischief. Legal tests vary by jurisdiction, so the idiom should not substitute for a precise statement of liability. Regional use: Developed in English legal usage; now international, especially in common-law jurisdictions.
Origin
Aid and abet joins two verbs with separate histories. Aid entered Middle English through French from Latin, while abet is recorded in late-fourteenth-century English from Old French abeter, associated with baiting or urging on. The exact pair is demonstrably older than some dictionary summaries suggest: a 1695 English translation of Pierre Le Moyne's Of the Art Both of Writing and Judging of History says that buying the book was not to 'Aid and Abet' enemies of the government. George Washington's 1798 letter is later evidence of the formula, not its first record. The 1695 citation documents use, not coinage.
Research Sources
Variants
- Aiding and abetting
Usage Examples
- The accountant was convicted of aiding and abetting the fraudulent transfers.
- Merely knowing about the scheme does not necessarily mean that she aided and abetted it.
- Prosecutors alleged that the supplier aided and abetted the illegal exports.