DictionaryRoot: besillier
Old French

besillier

torment, destroy, gouge

1 / 1
A cashier diverts shop takings into her own pocket while operating the shop's open cash register, visibly abusing her authorized access to entrusted money.
verb

embezzle

em-BEZ-uhl/ɪmˈbezl/

To steal money or property entrusted to one's care.

Etymology

With the prefix, besillier “destroy, gouge” became a verb meaning “steal, cause to disappear,” later applied to fraudulent appropriation of money. The ancestry of besillier itself is unknown.

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