The term calumny, which refers to a “slanderous statement”, made its debut in English in the 1560s and gained attention when Shakespeare used it in Hamlet. This word was adopted from the Old French term calomnie (with the same meaning), which was borrowed from Latin calumnia in the 1400s, denoting “trickery” (also the root of the word challenge, where the concept of “false accusation” evolved into “accusation” and ultimately “confrontation”). The source of calumnia was calvi, meaning “to deceive”, and based on related terms in Greek and Germanic languages, scholars have tentatively traced it back to a Proto-Indo-European root resembling kehl, associated with betrayal or falsehood. According to Google NGrams, the usage of the term calumny reached its peak in 1796 and has been on a decline since then.
