Sin

Old English synn — moral wrongdoing, offense against God. Proto-Germanic root. Some scholars connect it to Latin sons, sontis — guilty, the guilty party. The legal and theological senses were adjacent from the beginning.

Sin has migrated from theology into secular moral language — 'the sin of omission,' 'cardinal sins of management.' The migration borrows the weight of theological transgression for secular judgments. In political speech, invoking sin signals a moral seriousness beyond policy disagreement.