5 December 2019 — 1226 mst

Empeachment or impeachment?

A reader with a profound knowledge of the history of England, and of the English language, sent me a one-word email message, “Empeachment,” knowing I could not resist digging up information on what I reckoned was an old and obsolete spelling of “impeachment.” Being too lazy to drive to Flathead Valley Community College, where the library probably has access to the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language, I conducted a few online searches, then consulted my copy of Webster’s Third New International Dictionary.

“Empeachment” dates back to at least the sixteenth century, and probably several centuries earlier. Of more interest is when “impeachment” became the preferred spelling. That date eluded me, but our constitution, written in the late eighteenth century, used “impeach,” which suggests that “impeach” was the preferred spelling by the mid-eighteenth century, when the constitution’s authors were educated.

Here’s Webster’s definition: