oathbreach

• oath-breach, oath breach

From Middle English othbreche, from Old English āþbriċe, āþbryċe (“the breaking of an oath, perjury”), equivalent to oath +‎ breach. Compare West Frisian eedbrek (“perjury”), Dutch eedbreuk (“breach of an oath”), German Low German Eedbröök (“the breach of an oath”), German Eidbruch (“the breaking of an oath”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈoʊθbɹiːt͡ʃ/

oathbreach (countable and uncountable, plural oathbreaches)

1. Breach or breaking of an oath; perjury.
   • 1886, Guðbrandur Vigfússon, F York Powell, Sigfred-Arminius and other papers:

     To this list of deadly crimes, naming house-breaking, arson or fire-raising, open theft (ran), and clear murder and treason to one's lord, the Northmen seem to have added unnatural crime (arg-scap), witchcraft, blasphemy, and oath-breach, [...]

   • 1891, Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, Report and transactions:

     Yet he calls him also a son of Constantine of Dunmonia, which is odd, seeing that the only direct reference of this primitive and melancholy father of British history to the West of England is the declaration with regard to oath-breach — [...]

   • 1927, David Murray, Memories of the old college of Glasgow:

     This, like other regulations, was enforced by means of the oath which all members of the University were required to take,2 and any violation of which was oathbreach or perjury, and involved very serious consequences.

   • 1963, Richard Wilbur, The poems of Richard Wilbur:

     As Wulfstan said, It is oathbreach, faithbreach, lovebreach Bring the invaders into the estuaries.

   • 2004, Jane Chance, Tolkien and the Invention of Myth:

     It is also interesting because of the litany in which the word appears, giving it a rhetorical prominence to which only a culture founded on the oath would give it, for adbrice means, simply, "oath breach," or "oath breaking."

   • 2006, Francis Dolan, Meg and Jen's Other World Adventures:

     Queen Elithe intervened in a sweet sing song voice 'Sire don't you think that the Oath breach can wait until the troll and goblin issue has been solved and put to rest, I'm sure Daffyd has a very good and sound reason for the Oath breach.