Cheaters!

1. Infidelity

Original Meaning: Lacking religious faith / Unfaithfulness to a king

The word infidelity comes from the Latin word infidelitas.

The Journey:

1. The Religious Era (1300s–1400s): When the word entered Middle English (via Old French infidélité), it strictly meant a lack of religious faith, paganism, or being an "infidel" (unbeliever).

2. The Political Era (1400s): By the early 15th century, the meaning widened slightly to mean disloyalty or treason against a sovereign or king.

3. The Romantic Shift (1500s): By the 16th century, people began applying the concept of "faithfulness" beyond God and kings to human love. Breaking the sacred "vow" or promise made in marriage was seen as a personal loss of faith, and infidelity officially took on its romantic definition.

2. Cheater / Cheat

Original Meaning: A medieval tax collector!

The origin of "cheat" is one of the most surprising plot twists in the English language.

The Journey:

1. The Feudal Era (1300s): In feudal England, if a landowner died without an heir, their property legally reverted (or "fell back") to the King. In Anglo-French, this legal land forfeiture was called an eschete (from Latin excadere, "to fall out").

2. The Corrupt Officers: The royal officers appointed to seize this land for the crown were called escheators. People soon shortened the name to cheators. These cheators gained a terrible reputation for being greedy, corrupt, and using legal trickery to steal land from vulnerable families.

3. From Job Title to Dishonesty (1500s–1600s): Because people loathed escheators, the word "cheater" stopped being a job title and became a general term for a dishonest person, a swindler, or someone who tricked people at card games.

4. The Slang for Romance (1930s): While using "cheat" to mean breaking game rules was common for centuries, using "cheat on" specifically to mean romantic unfaithfulness is actually very recent! It emerged in American slang in the 1930s, framing a relationship as a agreement with rules—where sneaking around with someone else was "breaking the rules" to get an unfair advantage.

"A couple involves two people in a relationship and there is always the slut who can not count" .....or teh pig.