The term impeach as a verb has a long history, dating back 130 years before its emergence as a noun. It was adopted from Anglo-French empecher, originally meaning “to hinder” or “prevent”. Through various forms like enpeche, enpesshe, empeach, impesche, and finally impeach, it took on its modern definition in the sixteenth century, reaching its peak in usage in the 1660s, with a noticeable increase in searches since the 2016 presidential election according to Google Trends. Empecher comes from Old French empeechier, which traces back to Latin impedicare, meaning “to entangle” or “fetter”. Impedicare is a combination of the prefix in– (meaning “into”) and pedica (meaning “shackles”), ultimately stemming from the Proto-Indo-European word ped, signifying “foot”. This progression from feet to shackles to entanglement to hindrance to political removal is a fascinating evolution!
