Inculpate

verb

To indict, blame, or indicate the involvement of something or someone in a suspicious or negative incident

Usage

We all make mistakes, and while it is constructive and truly admirable to endeavor to make less of them, it’s only a matter of time until we stumble into one again. The key, then, to personal growth is not to obsessively fear making mistakes but to learn how to handle them. When others inculpate us in misdeeds, or when we recognize we’ve committed them ourselves, the mature thing to do is to issue a mea culpa with grace and see how we can learn from them.

To inculpate is to accuse or find fault with something or someone, or just to establish involvement in something negative. When negative repercussions result from mishandling, misuse, or abuse, suggesting the outcome’s root cause inculpates the source of the problem. Thus, you could inculpate your friend Brian for failing to bring dessert for your potluck dinner if it was his assignment to provide it, or you could inculpate the humid weather in frizzing your hair more than usual. Although one is most often inculpated on account of direct, willful involvement in something suspicious, the word could still apply even in cases of an accidental relationship with a conspicuous incident. If your extracurricular club misallocated funds from the school without your knowledge, the administration might inculpate you along with your fellow club-mates despite your personal innocence.

While inculpate still sees contemporary usage, it is a somewhat antiquated term and, as such, is usually found in more formal settings. The most common modern usage of inculpate is in legal settings as part of the term inculpatory evidence. Inculpatory evidence consists of details or items of proof which wholly or partly establish the guilt of a defendant. A fingerprint left at the scene of a break-in would constitute strong inculpatory evidence. A suspect not being accounted for at the time of a crime, while not by itself enough to establish guilt, could also be inculpatory evidence.

Like with accusing, though, inculpating only contends or proposes fault, rather than establishing its certitude. To inculpate merely touches off the investigation or reflection required to ultimately confirm guilt or exonerate. For instance, you may have forgotten that it was actually Mary’s job to bring dessert, in which case you inculpated Brian erroneously. Or it might turn out that you didn’t apply your usual amount of hair gel to tame your otherwise fuzzy locks, exonerating the weather from culpability. When you inculpate, you still have to prove your case, lest someone inculpate you with baseless accusations!

Example: The cat feigned bewilderment that its owner would inculpate it for the shredded bag of cat treats on the floor.

Example: Though the authorities knew the mob boss well, they could never seem to accrue enough evidence to inculpate him in court.

Origin

Inculpate originates with the Latin word for fault or guilt, culpa, which is used in English in the borrowed Latin phrase mea culpa, meaning literally “my fault.” The verb form of this stem, culpare, means “to accuse” and, when combined with the Latin prefix in- (meaning “in, into, on”), forms the word inculpare, which means “to indict” or “to lay blame upon.” This then inspired the Late Latin word inculpatus before arriving in English as inculpate sometime in the late 18^th century.

Derivative Words

Inculpates: This conjugation is used when a singular, third-person subject is making an accusation or alleging correlation with an incriminating incident.

Example: She immediately inculpates her cat whenever her socks go missing, an instinct which very often proves correct.

Inculpated: The past tense of inculpate describes when an indictment or charge of involvement with nefarious deeds occurred in the past, or functions as an adjective to signify that something or someone is marred by such an indictment.

Example: After uncovering suspicious financial dealings, the ethics board inculpated the politician.

Example: The inculpated public servant immediately held a press conference to profess her innocence.

Inculpating: This present progressive characterizes the assigning of blame or connection to a negative consequence as presently unfolding.

Example: Before the authorities could finish formally inculpating the banking executive, he resigned.

Inculpation: Inculpation is a noun that means fault, blame, or incrimination. It is also part of the compound word used in law: self-inculpation (exposing oneself to prosecution).

Example: After thorough analysis by economists and policymakers, predatory lending practices have garnered the lion’s share of inculpation for the 2008 housing market collapse.

Inculpatory: This adjective characterizes something as assigning or suggesting guilt in or relation to a scenario meriting condemnation or suspicion.

Example: Before her lawyer could advise her not to speak to police, she made an inculpatory statement, resulting in charges of complicity in the crime under investigation.

Similar Words

Culpable: Derived from the same root, the Latin culpa, as inculpate, culpable is an adjective which denotes that a person or thing deserves at least some, or possibly all, of the fault for some outcome. A thief, for instance, would certainly be culpable for a theft of sensitive information from a company. But if a security firm responsible for installing the victim’s security system did so improperly, they would also be culpable for the theft, though certainly less so than the thief. The actions of both the thief and the security firm contributed to the loss of the documents, and it is this common element which makes them both culpable.

Example: The farmers held the devastating drought culpable for their barren fields.

Exculpate: To exculpate means to acquit, or to prove or render someone or something not at fault for something. While exculpating someone or something of a negative outcome usually does not mean that their involvement in the outcome was completely disproven, exculpating them demonstrates that they were not responsible. The act of exculpation would not be necessary at all if there were no relationship between a person or thing and a negative outcome, but exculpation signifies that the relation was not substantial enough to delegate blame or guilt. An exculpated individual is likely related to the outcome, but had no hand or fault in it.

Example: Her well-publicized appearance across town at the time of the crime was more than enough to exculpate her.

Inculcate: Be careful to not mix up inculpate with inculcate. The only thing they share (other than 8 out of 9 letters) is the Latin root “in-”. Inculcate means to teach someone or impress upon them an idea or habit by repetition or frequent admonitions.

In Literature

From Germaine Greer’s piece for CNN, “Guilt poisons women”:

Guilt is one side of a nasty triangle; the other two are shame and stigma. This grim coalition combines to inculpate women themselves of the crimes committed against them.

In her piece reacting to a study of gender and behavior finding that women more readily accept guilt, warranted or not, Greer remarks that patriarchal constructs confront women with sources of guilt to which men are immune. She goes on to note that “shame”, “stigma” and “guilt” form a trifecta which drives women to fault, or inculpate, themselves for falling victim to sexual harassment and violence.

Mnemonic

In law, to inculpate is the first step to incriminate.
To inculpate is to say who is culpable.