mulct
to swindle; to obtain by fraud
I found that it's from the 1584 and the 15th century. It has Latin roots. There are n. & v. forms of this word.
Unable to determine a history, any able to scry its history?
Other definitions include "to get money out of people through a tax or fee under pressure." Not quite sure what that means, i.e., robbery, holdup, or back to fraud.
mulct
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Re: mulct
Here's what my go-to site (www.etymonline.com) has to say:
It sounds like an archaic form of the past tense of milk, doesn't it? If you milk something for all it's worth, it's been mulct.
early 15c., "to punish by a fine or forfeiture," from Latin mulctare, altered (Barnhart calls it "false archaism") from multare "punish, to sentence to pay a fine," from multa "penalty, fine," which is perhaps from Oscan or Samnite [Klein], or perhaps connected to multus "numerous, many," as "a fine is a 'quantity' one has to pay" [de Vaan]. Sense of "defraud" is first recorded 1748.
It sounds like an archaic form of the past tense of milk, doesn't it? If you milk something for all it's worth, it's been mulct.
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