If you’ve seen news reports of people being investigated for embezzlement, there’s another word for this kind of financial fraud: defalcation. It means “misappropriation of money in one’s keeping,” or it can refer to the misappropriated money itself. However, this financial context was not the original usage of the word. “Defalcation” can be traced back to the Latin “falx,” meaning “sickle,” which is an implement used for cutting grain. The obsolete usage of the word is for lopping something off, or deducting it. There was a monetary usage in its 15th-century origin: a defalcation of wages. The current use of the word refers to either embezzlement or another breach of trust — a failure to meet expectations that often results in a financial loss.